BFW RECAP AND THANK YOU 2023
Birmingham Fetish Weekend…where do we even begin. We are just about physically recovered (Faye's voice has finally returned) and the aches and pains are starting to ease. Mentally and emotionally, we are still completely blown away!
We didn't invent the wheel when it comes to BFW, we are blessed to have inspiration to take from the original 2013 founders and friends Domeevents Pauldomaster, Aychee and Earthmom. Without these giants of the community, there would be no way paved for us and standing in their shoes has been one hell of an experience. We hope we made you all proud!
With the OG’s blessing and an arm long list of people to contact we set about putting our own stamp on BFW. We wanted to shine the spotlight on the people, places, professionals and performers of Birmingham and the West Midlands. Many phone calls and emails later we had an all star line up of sponsors, hosts, performers and Djs as well the first ever Uk bootblack contest!
Fast forward through 10 months of admin, planning, tickets, replanning as well as last minute venue losses and it was time for our Friday launch night.
FRIDAY
We cannot believe the turn out, the atmosphere and the buzz going on Friday night. Armed with our BBB/BBBAfterparty crew for Dms, excited team of hosts and of course our incredible media duo Kink_Focus and LatexFashionTV. We opened the show and welcomed our host and attendees before handing over to LeatherHiraeth, the mind behind the bootblack contest. We were introduced to the contestants and cheered as their contest began with the tech portion. The music featured Djs PaulDomaster and GloriaSync who created the perfect atmosphere and the dungeon, sponsored by __ALF__ , ended up completely full! Our raffle table was busy all night as you dug deep for charity and of course, some fantastic prizes! The night went by in a flash of latex, banging tunes and some stunning play, including a beautiful spotlight rope scene from Akkapus and -Ran-. As far as launch nights go, we could not have asked for more! One thing we learned from Friday? We like to party, we like, we like to party! #ifyouknow #vegabus
Your Friday night hosting team consisted of our main weekend hosts Latex-devotion who shone in more ways than one, MistressPaisleyB and Kikka_Jennie who also rocked both Saturday and Sunday for you! Mae-Daze and Texaspete representing the MidWeekMunch, RogueEvents, Aloralux our welly clad latex goddess and the lovely MistressSophie93 who, both, also rocked the whole weekend.
SAT P1 COMMUNITY DAY
A bright and possibly too start to our community day/monster munch but it wasn't long before the Gale started filling up, our day was sponsored by Tara_Red_Events and LeicesterTAMED and we thank you both for your help and support. It was so lovely to see so many folks mixing and mingling. Seeing them check the timetable and choose their workshops for the day was interesting and we were so pleased to see that there was something for everyone. The bootblacks continued their competition off site for their morning round of interviews but joined us again for an afternoon slot of public blacking. The raffle table maintained a steady stream of eager ticket buyers, thank you to all of you! Our workshop taster Hosts were on top form and we heard round after round of applause for their efforts.
This particular element of the BFW weekend meant so much to us, education is something very close to our hearts and sharing that space for others meant the world. Having the support of all the hosts giving their time and skills for free and being able to offer tickets for free felt like such a huge dose of community spirit. We are incredibly proud of what we all achieved together. Our day featured the talents of Tara_Red, texaspete, aloralux, notforsofites, violetincredible, DKLeather, Totallis, Novellus, knottybutt and Mist3rBee. There was also our human library which alongside Big_John_UK, DKLeather and MistressSophie93 also featured, madamezak. Our hosting team doubled as part of the big monster munch and we welcomed the Under 35s team, softblossoms, lilykatana, nuclearmutt alongside one of the Metal Munch hosts Devils_Reject619 and MPR dream team BB_ and Hattie-x-
SAT P2 FETISH BALL
8 Workshop rotations, a dungeon dismantled, more decorations put up, another round of crew and many shiny, lacey, fabulous outfits later it was time to reopen the doors for our big Saturday night Fetish Ball/Awards show. Dress to impress? OMFG did you! From ball gowns to full latex catsuits, leathers everywhere, the shoes…dear lord the shoes…. We could not have asked for more when it comes to how you lot turn up! We hit the night as we meant to go on with DJ Pauldomaster once again creating the vibe. The dance floor was full from the word go, so much so, some crowd control had to be put in place as we opened up our entertainment hour. Featuring performances from Allouetta La Zouch akkapus who opened and closed the show, there was blood, there were spears and there was boudicca…enough said. We also welcomed BirminghamRope with a stunning rope piece, seeing how nasty Novellus can become with an entangled Knottybutt was just stunning even with a mouthful of wax! DominusVonVexo brought a heavy dose of glamour to our evening as she commanded our stage with those perfect pins!
Between the bouts of visual delights we announced the winners of our first ever _The_BBB_ awards! Huge congratulations to the winners! In the Mistress category: DianaVonRigg, taking the performers award the evenings own akkapus. Your favourite workshop went to Alwayspurple for The Humble Flogger. You crowned your favourite crew member Slug- and the big one…your top three traders for 2023 ...3rd place bignbuff, 2nd place spoiltkitty and your 1st place winner of the category LeatherDelights. We cannot wait to see the clips captured by latexfashiontv from these wonderful moments.
From here the dancefloor refilled and when we say you partied until the lights come on, we mean it! The bootblacks worked hard through the evening shining pair after pair and the leather lounge had a stream of onlookers throughout. Our media team was busy all night. Our house tog Kink_Focus never stopped snapping and special shoutout to misspoisoncandi who joined forces with latexfashiontv to interview many of our guests about their experience. Later in the evening we announced the winners of our big charity raffle! We had many winners on the night which was wonderful and we have a box of prizes and winners to contact, keep your phones near you this weekend for a simple message YOU ARE A WINNER! (contact back whenever it suits you.)
The Big Saturday night fetish ball was made up of pretty much everyone listed above but we also made room for another wave of hosts in the forms of: Maam_Rouge, Ronelle_Chambers, DianaVonRigg, MissLadyLouisa, mistressskirsty1, Dolly-Poppet, Misspoisoncandi and a guest appearance from ZaraDuRose! For our raffle we had prizes from many of the above as well as Doxy, Author Laura Antoniou, DirtySexyWords and SinnovatorHQ.
When we advertised a ball we never planned on it becoming a fetish rave but we know what we will be doing next time! #roundtwo #letsdoitagain #throwsomeshapes #latexrave
BBB/ BBBAfterparty
Our final part of BFW, the BBB and BBBAfterparty did not disappoint. You came out out! The outfits were incredible, the traders were on top form and they were packed into every corner they could fit to be part of our big weekend. We had record breaking numbers at both events and the atmosphere was just buzzing all day and night! We had blood, wax and fire with SeleniaCastle, dipped our toes into fearplay with WillHunt and RedRidingBrat, saw the biggest best dressed we have ever had, shared in the crowning of the Bootblack contest winner _Pine_, to witnessing a beautiful collaring from DKLeather to LeatherHiraeth. The day flew by made up of so many wonderful moments, once closed and passed the mad hour we jumped back in for the home stretch. The BBBAfterparty saw it’s biggest numbers to date and we loved seeing both our dungeons, the classes, the workshop and wax lounge all full all night long. ChristianRed took you through the beginners and intermediate rope classes whilst WillHunt and RedRidingBrat returned to delve deeper into fearplay, with 127 in there, it's safe to say the workshop went down really well! Many of our weekend hosts and performers came along on Sunday and of course our weekend crew hitting the last day hard, so a huge thanks to all involved in the finale to BFW! For full reviews on both BBB and Afterparty check out the thank you notes:
CREW
-BadRabbit- Slug- Rick_JL bear-wolf010 Just_Sara just_sara_boy kinkfocus AddysDaddy DaddysAddy devils_rejects691 -fireinhereyes- PureRetroFS kittyamory bessiebaby Lana-Goddess Himbo_ silver_light MistressPaisleyB JamesBlack AGallantDominant bratofalltrades
We could not be more grateful or more proud of the crew that brought you BFW. This group of community members extend their love far beyond their own experiences and put their heart and souls into creating spaces, providing experiences, sharing knowledge and pouring their love of the scene into these projects with us. We call them spartans because they are true warriors for what we went through this weekend! From admins to cloakroom attendees, van loaders to furniture builders, raffle ticket sellers to DMS. They cover all manner of roles and they do it with care and commitment that is unparalleled. Thank you to each and every one of you for going above and beyond this weekend. We love you all #family #fetfam #spartans
SPONSORS/HOSTS
If you somehow missed any of them in our advertising, here's a reminder of the folks who made up your BFW line up!
Latex-Devotion, MissJ_n_dibbo
What can we say! Our hosting champions! The team at LD were a huge part of the BFW weekend, not only being one of the main hosts for the weekend they also worked behind the scenes sorting hotel deals for us. Team LD also gave us the fabulous latex maids as part of our Saturday night and of course more prizes for our raffle! Thank you all so much for your time and support.
CelestialStudios, Viviennelamour, TheCircusMaximus
Whilst unfortunately Viv and her team had to drop out very late in the game they still contributed to all of the advertising leading up to the event as well as including some amazing prizes in our raffle.
The_Facility, Big_John_UK
We had big plans for our Big John but due to life circumstances we had to cut a few bits. We are grateful though for BigJohns spotlight in our Human Library as well as the fabulous prizes donated to our raffle
Kink_Focus and LatexFashionTV
Huge thanks go to both of these incredible talented humans. They worked tireless throughout the events capturing moment after moment for us. Their work is still ongoing as they work their way through hundreds of edits! We cannot thank you both enough for what you brought to the weekend.
Maam_Rouge, Ronelle_Chambers, DianaVonRigg, MissLadyLouisa, mistressskirsty1, Dolly-Poppet, Misspoisoncandi texaspete Mae-daze softblossoms lilykatana nuclearmutt devils_reject619 Tara_Red MistressPaisleyB Kikka_Jennie notforsofties BB_ Hattie-x- aloralux, notforsofites violetincredible DKLeather Totallis Novellus knottybutt Mist3rBee Big_John_UK MistressSophie93 madamezak Domeevents
These wonderful, diverse, creative, passionate people made up your weekend hosting team whether that be on the evenings, as workshop tasters hosts or mingling through our monster munch. Thank you, each and every one of you for being a part of this with us, bringing your vibrant, talented selves to the weekend and giving your time, knowledge and passion to the community.
FROM U/us
We are positively glowing from the weekend, despite the tiredness and the aches and pains, what happened this weekend was just incredible. So many people came together to make something amazing happen and we could not be prouder to have been a part of it all. We are truly grateful to all of those mentioned above and of course to all of you who joined us for any or every part of the weekend. This one will definitely go down in the history books for us as a soulfood weekend. And of course we cannot wait to start planning BFW 2024… look out for date announcements! Haha!
Much love, always
Faye and beastie x