World Bear Weekend Through the Lens of Tristan Sutphin
World Bear Weekend took place in Orlando, Florida from September 21st through 24th. Nearly 1000 bears descended on SeaWorld Doubletree for a weekend of fun, laughter and community. This year’s theme was “Resurgence: Villains Revenge” and thus attendees were encouraged to get decked out in their very best villain cosplay for a special Villains & Vixens Show and a themed dance party thrown during the course of the weekend.
Besides costumed events, World Bear Weekend featured pool parties, pet moshes, workshops, bingo, games, buffets and the one and only Miss Coco Peru in her one woman show. Of course, there was also the competition to determine who the new World Pet, World Cub and World Bear would be too. (There were no entrants into the Ms. World Bear category this year.)
After three nights of presentations which required contestants to compete in swimwear, theme (villain) wear, fantasy wear, formal wear, Q&A and speech giving categories, the new World Bear Royal Family was chosen. Heath Hooper aka Candy Bear was named Mr. World Bear; David Sugar was named World Cub and haifisch was named World Pet. Since there was no competition for Ms. World Bear this year, Daddie Danger agreed to hang onto the title. We’ll be bringing you feature interviews with each of the members of the World Bear Royal Family in the coming weeks!
In the meantime, however, the wonderfully talented Tristan Sutphin, the official event photographer for World Bear Weekend, graciously allowed us to share these gorgeous photos he took with you. Enjoy!
World Bear Weekend will return to Lexington, Kentucky next year from August 1st through 4th. The theme is Star Wars with the tagline: Who’s Your Daddy?! More details about host hotel and registration to follow.
