14-Year Anniversary Fetish Weekend
a Gonzo Retrospective by Timb
I say this with all sincerity - I've been doing this for so long that nothing really shocks me anymore. It takes a lot to impress this guy when it comes to fetish events, FF or otherwise. Perhaps I'm jaded. Here at the heart of the FF company for over 5 years, I have experienced my fair share of mind-blowing party moments, many that are on par with my expectations, and even a handful of duds. Like I said, it's been years and it's really no surprise.
In February 2004, I had my first day in the belly of the beast – the tiny, disorganized room hidden inside the FF store where the magic happens. The truth is we have a disproportionately small base of operations in comparison to the insanely large events that we somehow manage to pull off – if you think we are some enormous company with 100+ employees, you would be shocked at just how teensy and family-run we are.
That same year, Glenn hosted a single Anniversary Fetish Party nightclub event at The Copa in Fort Lauderdale. It was the 9-Year Anniversary – the last single party Anniversary event in the history of the company. It was a blast sporting some incredible entertainment including Chain Goddess Brandy, Masuimi Max, Rebecca and more. I don't think anyone was ready for what was to come the following year.
At the beginning of 2005, Glenn brainstormed a huge all-weekend event as something bigger and badder for the 10-Year milestone. I think everyone thought that he was crazy. Well, he certainly is, but we assumed he had bitten off more than he could chew – after all, he always says that a single nightclub event takes everything he's got, so how could he possibly consider throwing three in a row?
Glenn also talked a lot of madness about designating a host hotel and putting the crowd together for the entire weekend under one roof. This sounded like a brilliant idea, but somehow also a bureaucratic and public relations nightmare. I'm sure I wasn't alone when I pictured a hotel half booked with fetish people and half booked with god-fearing families.
Needless to say, Glenn and FF pulled off the impossible in 2005. How does he do it, you might ask? Well, 5 pots of coffee a day to get started. The guy never stops to breathe.
The 10-Year Weekend went off with nary a hitch and was a massive success. The main event boasted a roof-splitting 2,000+ attendance. FF set a high benchmark for a three-day fetish party experience worldwide that has been imitated but never duplicated in the international scene.
Since that year and every year since, Glenn, the FF store, and the promotional machine of which I am an intimate part – we have all been raising the bar. Better venues, bigger sponsors, great entertainment, more parties, smart promotions, and of course a vibe that you get nowhere else in the world. FF really stands alone when it comes to an all-weekend fetish event. If you are coming from out of town, we really take care of every possible aspect for you from accommodations to transportation so that you can party instead of worry.
The kicker in 2009 was a total hotel takeover. We took over an entire 4-star Sheraton hotel in short order, selling out every room in the massive 13 floor hotel way ahead of schedule – a whole two months before the party. This was way ahead of schedule. The interest was so great that we even took over a large portion of the Hilton hotel across the street. The "total hotel takeover" concept on this sort of scale was a first in the international fetish community.
I left work at the bustling FF store on Friday evening very much excited about the weekend. I picked up a trunk-load of alcohol on the way home, packed a huge case full of toys and another full of clothes, and headed over to the hotel to check in. You could feel the energy in the air as you walked in the door. Something unreal was going to play out this weekend and I was already on the edge of my front row seat.
We were lucky with the hotel. The staff was very much fetish friendly – they never made us feel strange or uncomfortable no matter how bizarre we probably seemed to them on the surface. They were 100% hospitable all weekend long without fail. They were good to our crowd and in turn we were good to them.
Friday night at the hotel I met with friends, moved between hotel rooms getting ready, and marched onto the bus which whisked me away to Jackhammer for an extreme night of fetish partying.
This venue was setup like a maze with a lot of areas in shadows – too many hot little secrets going on throughout the club. The front room was probably the best kept secret. Here I found more space to stretch out, play, enjoy and drink or just get some time on a stool to cool my feet from the vicious heels I was wearing. Heavy, creative bondage, crops and floggers, footworship, and dommes with strap-ons seemed to be the call of the night. There was certainly plenty to ogle even if you are a bit to shy to get into the thick of it.
In the front room, I witnessed beautiful Samar in a breathtaking suspension show that was more like a work of art than a fetish performance. In two chapters of the one show, Samar moved from suspension by hooks in her back to hooks embedded in the skin over her knee. It was insane and definitely a command performance that I will never forget. This was definitely the heat and energy of the extreme party – a sanctuary for kinky sexuality. This is the unlimited event where you are encouraged to display your darkest, nastiest fantasy in front of a room of voyeurs who lovingly appreciate your perversions. They'll lap it up and come back for more.
Back to the hotel, I hung out poolside at the official afterparty. This night wasn't going to end until the sun was up. Back to my room, I hung out with friends and proceeded to drink my weight in Bombay Sapphire and orange juice until well into the next morning.
Noonish on Saturday, I woke up with the worst hangover of my life to date. I crawled across the hall and got some Excedrin from a friend. I was thankful that at least she was prepared for the eventualities of this debaucherous weekend. I was dehydrated, starving, in one hell of a bad mood and my head felt like a Gallagher-smashed watermelon. I ended up missing a big part of the pool party simply because I wanted to go off-premise and get some hearty food in an attempt to fix myself up. I will say the bit of time I sent at the pool party was pretty fantastic. It was bigger and better than ever, and the little bit of rain that came and went didn't really slow anyone down. I can't wait until next year. I'm going to get a crazy swimsuit together to wear and slather on some of that SPF 75 sunscreen, and you will see me poolside for hours flirting with all the beautiful people.
Saturday night took place at Purgatory which is the usual venue for FF monthly parties, so this one was simply titled "Alter Ego" and was meant to be a taste of the tradition and ritual that we do once a month of the second Saturday. This party was very similar to a monthly, only a bit bigger. This was the party where I expected to see all of my friends and have a good, social time. No bad surprises – this is exactly what I got. It was a great party in a cool venue. It was packed yet comfortably full so that there was plenty of space if you want to dance, chill or play. Purgatory is a club that really knows about fetish parties as FF has been there every month for the better part of two years.
While I was there Saturday, I witnessed a great performance by top fetish models Ruby Luster and Angela Ryan. In this show, Ruby had been given a huge gift which stood wrapped on the stage. As this curvaceous beauty unwrapped the present, out came her new toy – a masked latex sex doll with Angela Ryan underneath the rubber skin – her mouth permanently agape in an "O" position. Ruby put on her strap-on harness and went to town, bending sex toy Angela over or filling her mouth with the shiny latex cock.
The Saturday afterparty was even better attended than the night before which increased the trend that the weekend was building momentum with each night and each new party. I played the booze a bit more conservative on Saturday night since I had learned my lesson with the gin n' juice from the night before. I have to remember to pace myself accordingly. Slow and steady wins the race.
Sunday, I woke up late and met up with friends to round up some food.
After a brief but passionate kinky midday interlude, I spent the better part of the day resting, relaxing and socializing over some cold beers with friends. As the big main event hour drew closer, I snuck away to my room to start putting together my final outfit of the weekend. Everyone getting ready for the big finale is quite a spectacle unto itself. This was it – the biggest and baddest party of the whole weekend with nearly 2,000 expected in attendance.
Sunday, I arrived at the club via the bus shuttle skipping over the car line piling up for the underprepared valet parking and waited only a brief moment in the door line before pretty much strutting right up into the massive venue.
As I entered the door, my jaw dropped. I've seen a lot, and there are very few moments where I really feel that original excitement about a party that I used to feel in the beginning when attending these events, but this was definitely one of those rare moments.
A few come to mind like the back porch at the Halloween Ball in 2007 at Revolution, or the huge crowd that shocked us and packed the house after the hurricane in 2005 at Club Cinema, but I daresay the main room of the freshly reopened Coliseum (now known as Club Premier) takes the blue ribbon.
This place was decorated to the hilt, and I'm talking top to bottom. The place was comfortably packed and the partygoers were blowing up in time to the pulse of the music. The main event had come alive.
The lights, the booming sound, the inflatable decorations in the rafters, the music, the madness, the partygoers – it was at least incredible, and at best the fetish party experience of a lifetime, and this was only the start.
The rooms in this venue just go on and on forever. After you have explored all the action in one room, you can move on to the next. There's no end to the fun and trouble you can get into at this party. You can circle the rooms in this venue all night long and never get tired of the party action even for a moment.
Outside the main room, you could also enjoy the lounge where the music wasn't quite as loud. People ordered drinks from the bar, complimented each others' outfits and generally got into some naughty trouble. Behind the main stage, you could enter into another room with its own separate dancefloor, bars and DJ – basically another nightclub unto itself, and the home of the old Venus Room back in the day. Behind this room, there was an open-air porch with it's own bar and its own DJ. Outside, I caught a fire show by Kikimora who spun fire poi, then a bo staff with the ends lit, and then a pair of long, flaming claws which seemed to mesmerize her audience to no end. She was a very skipped artist and performer and one hell of a hot beauty to behold.
Back inside, I witnessed a multi-sexual fetish performance by beautiful queer couple Matt Havoc and Robin Rotten who joined FF's own tattooed fetish diva Rebecca on stage. This show was simply incredible. At one moment Robin bent over Matt on stage, and the next moment, Rebecca took her place behind Robin simulating the sort of kinky sexual energy that really embodies this pansexual scene. Robin kissed Matt deeply and passionately – it was so sincere. Rebecca knelt down in front of them, masturbating her enormous latex cock as she watched. It was such a spectacular microcosm of the fetish scene in so many ways. Definitely a breathtaking spectacle for anyone in the audience regardless of their individual sexual orientation.
There were so many shows going on all weekend but I only managed to catch a tiny handful of them. When there's a show on stage, I'm likely making my rounds of the club, flirting, playing, and catching up with fetish friends, both old and new. Some people do go to the parties for the performers, but I am there to mingle - to see and be seen, and sometimes to get into some kinky trouble. For me, that's what it's all about.
Sunday night's afterparty was also well off the charts and stayed packed until the sun started to come up and the DJ turned on the lights and turned off the music. Fetish friends mingled and flirted on the poolside loungers, others swam in the pool in their latex. Some got familiarized in the hot tub. Whatever your poison, this was a great night to be on the scene. No one was in a hurry to run off to bed at 6am – even though this was the end of official parties, it really felt like it was just the start. Everyone went up into the hotel rooms and continued to party well until the sun was high and warm in the sky Monday morning.
All in all, I would say that Glenn and the entire FF company from Donna to Rebecca to the store staff to the graphics department to the promotional machine – the FF company has really set the bar high this year. We worked tirelessly, and you, the partygoer, have shown in a way that you appreciate our hard work by partying hard with us year-in and year-out.
Without question, FF has somehow managed to throw it bigger and better this year than in any year in the history of this company, and it's all because of you. In all honesty, the attendees made this the best one ever by coming out in droves. Even though times may be tough and money may be tighter than ever before, let there be no doubt - we still love to party, and nothing is going to stop us from doing what we love. We did it, and damn did we ever love doing it!
If you missed the FF Anniversary Fetish Weekend this year, you really missed out. No offense, but shame on you. At least you can get over here and be a part of this thing next year, and you really should. You really, really should.