FF Hallowen Fetish Ball 2008
an editorial by Timb | photos by MisterVibe

October is a spectacular time of year and Halloween is definitely my personal favorite holiday, no question about it. There are many reasons why this spooky night is far superior to more widely celebrated holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter.

Halloween is creative – figure out your costume. Be clever. Buy a fancy one if you can afford it, or get together some ingenuity and assemble something clever from bits and pieces.

Halloween is all about cheesy horror – that’s been a staple of my pop culture interests since I was very young. I just can’t get enough Romero zombie films, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy, Jason and the like. A holiday that brings horror to the forefront is more up my alley than a strap-on dildo.

Halloween is adult – you may think this is a kid’s holiday, but you’d be wrong in your assumption. Sex is not for kids, and no longer is Halloween. Each year, this holiday becomes more and more adult as urban legends about poisoned candy corn make their way through the media and paranoid parental units lock up their young at home. But when the moon is high in the sky, these same parents greet the babysitter. They head out to the block parties and fetish extravaganzas to get hammered (and maybe even nailed) in their skimpy, sexy costumes.

Halloween is sexy – 80s rockers Motley Crue call out Halloween and New Years Eve as the two sexiest occasions of the year in one particular song that gets much play at your neighborhood titty bar. I’m not one to agree with glam metal misogynists too often, but this time I can’t part company. Halloween is one damn hot night where you could - and very well should - get your freak on, whether you are a disciple of the game, or just interested in the sport of the chase and the keep-your-hands-clean fun of flirting. This party, the Halloween Fetish Ball, is living, breathing proof, and this year was no exception.

This year’s event set a new high-bar for Fetish Factory with over 2,100 of our fetish friends confirmed in attendance. That’s massive. In 14 years of live fetish events, never have we had so many kinky friends in the house at one time. Let me be clear about this statistic. This is not the usual industry-inflated number to try to impress the local dirtsheet media and the other large fetish parties of the world. This is for real. There were a confirmed 2,100+ filling massive Club Cinema to the rafters.

The amazing thing is that these awesome numbers don’t really make the party so much as the energy that these friends bring with them. Small events can have a great vibe too, and many people actually prefer them, but when you have big numbers and big energy, that’s a recipe for an insane, kinky night you will not soon forget!

Dressed in my staple Alice in Wonderland costume, I spent the day helping out at the Fetish Factory store with the hustle and bustle of last-minute Halloween customers looking for something unique. I greeted dozens of customers throughout the day and helped them pick out their costumes and accessories, advising them on this or that. Some were having fun, others were stressed or in a hurry, but in the end, they complimented me on my Alice costume, promised to see me again later that night at the big event, and left the store with an outfit that couldn’t wait to wear.

I had a lot of social obligations on Halloween which is no surprise. It’s business as usual for an arugula latté-sipping fetish socialite elitist at the heart of this pretentious fetish scene. All of my friends, both kinky and vanilla, like to get together on Halloween and celebrate, showing off their clever (and not-so-clever) costumes and enjoy a dozen or more drinks together, so after getting off work, I made my way to the Halloween Fetish Ball between house parties.

My girlfriend had an obligation to attend her friend’s birthday / Halloween party this same night and couldn’t make the Ball, so I was cut loose. I decided to go it solo, and while I missed her, being at a party alone is a very different experience than attending with a significant other. I see more, I socialize more, and, though it is innocent in practice, I flirt more. Tonight would be no exception. She definitely missed out on one hell of a party if I dare say so myself.

Strapped tight into a corset and collar, and lifted towards the ceiling my massive platform boots, I looked as if Alice had just ate a piece of the mushroom and was now 10 ft tall. I kept on my sexy, skimpy crossdressing costume for the night and headed out to Club Cinema, initially just intending to “pop in” before heading off to the next obligation.

As soon as I entered the door, I could tell that something special was happening. This party was insane, even by my extremely jaded standards.

This was not going to be just some short “social appearance”. I rolled in around midnight and I could already tell that I should have gotten here at the beginning of the night; I had missed so much already. The party had just come to a roaring boil. The place was bursting at the seams with energy. The incredible fetish shows were already in progress, and my friends were already meeting, greeting, and beating each other for fun. The dancing, drinking, flogging and flirting had begun without me!

Walking into the main room was an overwhelming sensory experience – the bass of the music like the quickening heartbeat of some mythical colossus – the lights pulsed through the masses of the dark space like bolts of lightning, piercing lasers and flickering electricity – the brilliant colors of the costumes, and of course the undeniably beautiful attendees themselves – all filling this cavernous, multi-room, multi-level venue from top to bottom. The screens over the stage flashed live-generated and simulcast VJ imagery that spread out in psychedelic patterns to the beat of the pounding dance music. The decorations transformed this old theater house-turned-concert venue into an otherworldly landscape that only a Fetish Factory party can create.

I looked to the stage as my new friends Stryker-Vawn put on a sultry, debaucherous performance. The voyeurs in the audience definitely took note of their super-sexual, uninhibited exhibition. The impossibly shaped demoness body of Vawn slithered and twisted on the stage box like some salacious serpent, as Stryker, in futuristic red scale armor straight out of an H.R. Gieger sci-fi, put his lusty lover through the gauntlet – candle wax, corporal public punishment, teasing, torment - finally inserting a devil-tail butt plug as she threw her head back in ecstacy and accepted the invading penetration. Her costume finally complete, Vawn arched her back on all fours atop the box and whipped her devil tail around the stage, licking her lips at the lusting onlookers.

I made my way to the side room of the club – a smaller dancefloor and a notoriously popular area for the BDSM players. Spread out throughout the club is Fetish Factory’s staple bondage equipment installations, and the players take advantage. Mistresses and Masters put up their favorite submissive slaves for all to see as they dish out a delicious public punishment.

I met up with friends, both new and old, and ran into my old friend Tom O’Shields who was wielding the camera as usual, and brought my nearby friends in close for a photo. I then got dragged onto the dancefloor for a few select songs of the energizing DJ Godfather spun set.

The night, nearing the 2am mark, was finally coming to a close, but no one wanted to sneak out early to “beat the crowds”. These partiers were going to stick it out until the last second when the house lights come on and the music finally grinds to a halt.

This is the party that the people made, and without them, it would just be an empty room with some expensive decorations and one very disappointed promoter. Clearly, when times are tough and life seems strange, this is the best time to put your worries aside and indulge to excess for one evening with your friends, and there is no better night than Halloween.

All in all, this was a record-setting night for attendance, but more importantly, this was one hell of a party. If you were there, I’m sure you’d agree. If you missed this one, you definitely missed a sexy spectacular – a classic in the making. Don’t miss out next year. I am definitely looking forward to Halloween 2009 and feel especially energized about the upcoming monthly parties. I tip my hat to you, our loyal friends, who continue to support the local South Florida scene, allowing Fetish Factory to be the fetish party pioneers of the world.

See you next year!