Arrival, dinner and Torture Garden Party!
Friday at 11:20am, I arrived to London Heathow airport, with a suitcase full of rubber, ready for the
Skin Two Rubber Ball Weekend. Very excited about the weekends events, I took the Piccadilly line toward central London.
After a little side track, where I met a latex friend from Holland, got totally drenched by a shower and ended up visited four fetish shops in a row, I checked in at a hotel near Kings Cross. Other Danes, including my older brother, where staying at the same hotel.
Two hours later, my brother and I, made our way to Soho to meet Nova and Atticus from
FetishFlame and TG photographer
Mark Bennett for dinner. It was good to see Mark again and great to finally meet Nova and Atticus in person. Yes, Nova and Atticus are just as cute as they sound on their fabulous fetish podcast.
After dinner we walked down Frith Street to "Rush" where the Skin Two Cocktail Party where. The small bar with it's three floors turned out to be a good location for the little 150 person meetup. I met and talked to many people; Genevieve (formerly with
Buckle Magazine), Chanta Rose (porn acctress and author of
Bondage for Sex), a bunch of Tgirls from
RubberPal and naturally Tim, Liz and others from the
Skin Two team. We stayed until 11pm and had a great time.
It was past 11pm when Nova, Atticus, my brother and I arrived at the Torture Garden Skin Two Special party at the "Renaissance Rooms" near Vauxhall.
The venue offered 3 teamed rooms: Club Arena; a big dance floor with a large cage in the middle and a bar. Eclectic Ballroom; again a dance floor with a bar and lounge areas. Dungeon Boudoir; a playroom filled with SM equipment. All rooms had stages, where various performances took place.
As with all Torture Garden events, the music on the main dance floor was loud... Very loud! People with a "normal" hearing, could pick up a pair of free earplugs at the bars.
It's always great when people show up in something different. There where many people in unique latex outfits. I where very impressed by the cute transparent latex nurseand the pink latex alligator!
I ran into load of friends during the evening; Alexander Horn, RubberDoll, Bianca Beauchamp, Ancilla Tilia, Kumi, MissFuzzyBunny, Belgium Marc to mention a few... And of course all the friends from Denmark and Sweden.
I had a ok time, but where a little disappointed about the party settings. The venue where much better in the previous years. The performances I saw where not that exciting and the bar staff had a hard time keeping up, so getting a drink took forever. I hope that next year will be better.
Skin Two Expo!
I woke up around noon and met up with my brother at Starbucks Cafe for some coffee. Afterwards we walked around Holloway Road's fetish shops. So it was in the late afternoon I made my way to the Skin Two Expo at the Barbican Exhibition Centre.
As always there where large number of
fetish vendors from all over the world. Latex clothing, kinky boots and shoes, various accessories, jewellery, bondage and s/m equipment, kinky furniture and much, much more.
On the upper floor where the "Cafe Club", where people was sitting around talking and meeting up with friends. There where also various fashion shows, bondage/suspension demonstration and a photographer gallery.
I spend the rest of the afternoon talking with various people. Talked to
Skin Two's sweet webmistress - Rachel. Talked to
Martin and
Bianca about their new book:
Fetish Sex Symbol and picked up a signed copy for myself. Then I met the couple behind
Hedony Design and
Maxime Avet a French fetish photographer.
I left the Expo around 7pm. Next up, the Skin Two Rubber Ball!
Skin Two Rubber Ball 2005!
After a quick visit to my favorite Japanese restaurant, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the main event.
I wore jeans, t-shirt, a long apron, elbow length industrial gloves and goggles. All black, all latex. I looked like something from "
Hostel", the horror movie presented by Quentin Tarantino. The only thing there was missing was the blood.
We took off together with the rest of the Danes from the hotel and took the underground to Rubber Ball venue "SeOne" by London Bridge. When we arrived there where already a long line outside the main entrance. There where actually another entrance for people without bags or coats. A great improvement, compared to last year. We did not spend more than 10 min in line.
The SeOne venue consist of a series of rooms, all of them teamed to fit the "Screen and stage" theme set by Skin Two. From the changing area and cloakroom you could walk down the "Oscar Ally", a tunnel of red draped silk. The rooms was named "The Sci-Fi Room", "Casablanca", "The Main Feature", "Enter the Dragon", "Hammer House of Horror Dungeon", "The Interval" and where decorated accordingly. Almost every room included a huge bar and lounge areas, except "The Main Feature" there was a huge dance floor and the "Hammer House of Horror Dungeon" a huge playroom with various s/m equipment.
There where all kind of performances during the night.
Midori and
Kumi did a great bondage show and
RubberDoll a naughty show with a girlfriend. There where many others performances, but nothing that really sparked my interest.
I was disappointed to learn that the biggest show of them all, the once so fabulous fashion show, had been dropped. It's clear that the reason for this is lack of a single large room there could accommodate a stage and the lack of backstage area. Sad, but that's how it is.
Instead people watched all the great dresses, suits and costumes the other guests was wearing. There was plenty of amazing latex fashions walking around;
Nova and Atticus was wearing matching purple catsuits and hoods,
Jane Doe was wearing a cool black and white gown with white markings,
Martin showed up in his blue Elvis suit and
RubberDoll appeared in stunning black dress with red flower prints.
As always I spend most of the night talking to old friends, meeting new people, dancing and having fun. I had a good time, but when I wanted to go home, I discovered that my wardrobe ticket (and one of my industrial rubber gloves!) had gone missing during the night. So I had to wait an hour until most of the other guest had left, before I could get my bag. I was really tired and just wanted to get some sleep. A unlucky end of such a exciting night.
Skin Two Expo and The Finale!
Woke up at 1pm. Went for breakfast with my brother. Afterwards we went for a walk around London; London Eye, Piccadilly Circus and the Soho area.
Later, I visited the Skin Two Expo a last time. There where only a few visitors there. It's clear that Saturday was the most popular day, with many people shopping for something cool to wear for the Rubber Ball. I stayed for a couple of hours, talked to a few friends, afterwards I went home to get some food and to catch some sleep.
We when to the after party "
The Finale" around 9pm. The venue was a very classy club called "Abacus", in right next to the Bank of London. There was two rooms with bars, one with a play area, the other with a dance floor and plenty of lounge space.
The party had started at 6pm, but when I arrived, the place was almost empty! I guess many was tired after Saturday night. It seemed like forever, but the placed got filled slowly and the party was at its highest around midnight. After 1pm people started to leave and so did we.
The Skin Two Rubber Ball Weekend 2006 had ended! See you all again next year!
