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Arriving on Friday, I hit the ground running, with Rubberboyseraph, who was kind enough to meet me straight at Heathrow airport. We picked up a few friends on the way and went through the usual suspects of Regulation and Expectations. All of the major shops were running promotions (and free beer!), but alas I found nothing of interest to buy and settled for window shopping.

The Friday party of choice was the Nexus party, presented under the aegis of the BLF Berlin Leder Und Fetisch organization. Even though the dresscode for the party was black (as in black rubber, leather, or anything), several of my friends had gotten the mistaken impression that it was a Leather Nexus party, and were not interested in going. Maybe a promotion slip-up? In any case, the clientele that night was indeed quite leatherish, but not to the point of complete disaster. There were quite a few guys in rubber, uniforms and other interesting attires. The venue was Hidden, an established venue in Vauxhall, but unfortunately a bit too small and unorganized for a party of this magnitude. Late evening saw a minor catastrophe in the cloakroom, which at that point consisted of a huge, unsorted pile of bags (they apparently had not expected everyone to bring a bag along, which is quite usual in a fetish party).

On Saturday I had the privilege of coffeeing up with a local fellow kinkster (jameskink89). We discussed everything from pain play to UK politics, and popped in to Rob to see what was going on. After that it was time for a good old bondage session with a local top whom I was meeting for the first time. Pictures of that will follow later.

The Saturday party was the biggest event of the weekend, Full Fetish presented by Recon at the superclub Pulse in Southwark. Compared to Scala, the disaster venue of Full Fetish last year, Pulse proved to be spacy and airy enough, with a proper industrial vibe, proper darkroom area and efficient but slightly slow bars. The party died down surprisingly quickly, being somewhat quieter at 3am already.

Sunday concluded the weekend with the double party combo of Rubber Party and Deconstruction (the official ending party). Organized similarly as last year, in The Hoist, the rubber party once again suffered from an inordinate number of naked people, leftovers from the earlier naked party. They should really ask the naked people to leave once the rubber party starts, considering rubber is philosophically pretty much the exact opposite of showing lots of skin.

All in all, Recon’s Fetish Weekend is the only big, multi-day gay kink event in London, and Recon seems to have sorted out the practical organization fairly well. I would definitely recommend that you check it out next year.

The sky blessed us with a temperature above 25 C, and there were no clouds in sight. We arrived at the staging area in normal clothes, soon finding the section of our local kinky club MSC Finland. People were nicely dressed, even a few people in full leathers. Almost everyone had also brought along a gas mask as requested by the club organizers, in protest for the last years unfortunate tear gas attack. As me and my friend started to disrobe and reveal our rubber underneath, heads started turning and the usual questions (“Where did you buy that?”, “Isn’t it hot in there?”) asked. Because of the hot weather, me and my friend both wore rubber shorts, a rubber shirt, harness and a dog mask.

After a long wait (we were unfortunately in the last section of the parade, the whole parade was about 55 minutes long) it was finally our turn to start moving, and there it was! My chance to walk as a rubber dog in central Helsinki, amid thousands of spectators. I tried to flirt as much as I could with every camera I saw, and the reactions were mostly of curious interest. Unfortunately I didn’t end up in any major media, but this just means next year I have to be even more extravagant. Maybe full rubber, if the weather is kind…

Having optimized my airfare I arrived in Berlin already on Wednesday — definitely not the busiest day of the week. The only party of choice that night was the Black eXXXtreme party at Woof, with a dresscode of all-black; leather, rubber, you name it. Unfortunately my friends did not take it seriously, were turned down and called it a night. I however had packed my black rubber along, and enjoyed first Woof and Mutschmanns after that.

On Thusday we hit Blackstyle once again, and they had a surprisingly nice discounts in the store — I got myself a black surfsuit with codpiece, original price 195 EUR, discounted price 43 EUR! In the evening it was time for Mutschmann’s rubber night. If you’ve ever been to Mutschmann’s, you know how desperately crowded it is during all times — except during special events like the rubber night, which started early and had a strict dresscode. Therefore the mood was pleasantly social — until 11pm when they let the swarm of leather drones in, and it became packed in an instant.

On Friday it was time for the Rubber eXXXtreme at Scheune, same party and same venue as last year, and it was a partial failure. Scheune is simply too small to accomodate a party of such size, and in frustration I saw several of my friends leave to get some breathing room.

SNAX is one of the most under-advertised parties I’ve ever seen, but still huge, held at the dance venue Berghain every Easter Saturday. Berghain is in an old power station and usually houses vanilla electronic music fests. Ticket presales are mysterious, happening somewhere at some day and nobody quite seems to know where and how. Therefore we were unable to secure a ticket, and had to arrive at opening time to avoid the endless queue that forms quite rapidly for the non-ticketholders. We got in easily, but in a venue and party of that size, that was the last I saw of my friends. Everyone goes home from SNAX on their own (or with new friends).

Sunday saw my first visit to lab-oratory, a smaller dedicated kink venue adjacent to Berghain, where Gummi the rubber party was the party of the day. Crowds were more plenty than on an average Gummi, or so I was told, and it was a perfect balance of quality people and enough space to chat and relax.

Overall, there is no considerable difference in the magnitude and quality of parties between Easter and Folsom Europe, although the latter has the legenday street festival that Easter lacks. I often joke about how Berin is the Mecca of gay kink, and that everyone should pilgrimage there at least once, and that still holds true. Schöneberg — the gay district of Berlin — during a weekend in Easter or Folsom Europe — is something that eveyrone should experience, and not just for the parties, but for the kink-friendly atmosphere that is beyond anything the rest of Europe can offer.