The Recon fetish websites, which are produced by the UK company T101 Limited, are powerhouses in the men's online adult social media space. Recon also produces and sponsors a number of events across Europe and increasingly in the U.S., the most well-know of which are the Full Fetish parties. We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Antoin Strachan, Events Manger for T101, to talk about Fetish Week London set for July 11-17, 2011 in London.
Leatherati: Tell me a little of the history of Fetish Week and how Recon came to produce the event.
Antoin: Well, this year, 2011, is the second year of Fetish Week London. Last year was the first one. I guess how it started, Philip has always had idea of doing something in London but never really put it in to practice. After a bit of traveling around and sponsoring other events, its very clear that the scene is growing so much and we just thought that London really missing something like this. It's happening everywhere else and the London scene is growing so fast but we had no events weekend, nothing really to draw people in except for individual parties. So from 2008 through 2009 we started putting together ideas for it. So the ideas have been a number of years in the making to map out what we wanted to do and also just looking at other events and thinking about what might work in London. And then last year in 2010 we kind of thought right this is the year to do it and if we don't do it we're going to miss the window. And that was the start.
L: How was the first year?
A: The first year was really good. For us it was a bit of trial and error. We thought we'd try to put some events together and just kind of see how people would respond. See where they go, how they do, do they buy tickets for this kind of party or that one. We also thought too, we wanted to give some credibility and make it good sized, make it worthwhile. If you do an event like this it's good to make it a destination event. We wanted it to something that definitely people would travel for. So we started thinking about ideas of what we could do that might bring the continental Europeans across to London for this event rather than all the Brits always traveling across to Europe, we wanted to bring the Europeans over. So we took a hotel and what we also decided to do was in the planning of all the parties and events, we tried to make them diverse and not so much just the typical, you know the one leather party that you see at most events where you have the one party and a few small bar nights. We decided we would make several parties and several bar nights as well and also encourage the other leather bars as well as the non fetish bars to get involved in promoting their own events. They could advertise if they wanted to and we decided in our booklet that we'd provide a space for the bars and clubs to list whatever they're doing without their necessarily thinking that they had to spend money to advertise unless they really wanted to or to sponsor unless they really wanted to. So it's given them the freedom to say to people, while you're in London during this week, this is what's going on. We actually had a lot of people submit a lot of things which helped our guide to become really quite full. I think this year for 2011 we've had to increase the guide by another 12 pages for the people advertising and wanting to do other events and list other things. So, it's really been growing really well.
L: That's an interesting approach because most multi-day events out there tend to want to corral people in to the official events and everything has to be under that single umbrella so it's interesting to see you take different approach and invite other events to become involved
A: The important thing for me as the person from Recon who has spent 4 and a half years traveling around to just about every major fetish event in the U.S. and you can see how it works and you can see that they do definitely like to, I think that's a very good term, to corral people in, just focusing on the major events. But, I think it's important for the whole of London, the fetish scene in London, for people to know when they're coming that there's more to London than just this. That it's more than just this one bar; there's more than just this one club. There are all these other things going on. And our idea was to, in terms of making this a destination event, not just for Fetish Week London, but also for any other time of the year. Hopefully people would come, they would have a good time and they'd come to London more than once. They'd realize that wow, these other places exist, these other bars and these other things going on. And that's also from my traveling around to other cities and you know, during these event weekends they have their leather events on but sometimes on other weekends of the year there's not much happening. You know, I've been to other bars in other cities and especially in the U.S. where I've been the only person on a Saturday night dressed in leather standing out like a sore thumb. And this is something we don't want to happen so it's really encouraging the bars to do much more their own things and I really think this helps the community, this helps the scene, if people come, they come for a weekend and hopefully they'll go to more than one bar; they'll go somewhere Friday and they go somewhere else on Saturday, they'll go somewhere on Sunday and there's always something for them to do. There's no such power like the word of mouth and if people can come experience it and they then go back and talk about it, then hopefully as other people in London start producing other events and doing other things, people will also be inclined to come for those, not just for Fetish Week so it's definitely about the community. When I approached the bars and clubs and shops about either supporting it or doing their own thing, this is exactly my plan. I said to everyone, this is a community thing, this is a group effort. You know, we're producing it but it order for it to be successful we need everyone to be a part of it. I don't want their to be the fighting like I know happens in some other places. Let's find the easiest way to work with everyone, get everyone involved, and then it's a win win situation for everybody. In the first year it was really amazing and the second year there was no problem at all getting people to come back and be involved again. I think if this year, the second year, runs successfully then I think we will have a number of really stable supporters and hopefully that just continues to make the event more productive and more successful in the future and it will continue to grow.
L: I like the idea that you've created an umbrella event which encompasses many different events. Was there any apprehension on your part that you would lose the message of the event, that it's a fetish week, that it would get diluted by letting everyone jump on and get involved?
A: Not really. In coming up with the name we tossed around a lot of ideas on a white board and we had about twenty different names, different options for names and what we would call it. We didn't want to specifically go with the leather pride theme, Leather Pride London, because in other people's minds it kind of becomes really restrictive and they think they have to wear leather only. This is also something I found from going to other events. Part of the connection ties in because our main party is called Recon Full Fetish and we call it that. So unless we add a tag for a specific dress code, we call it that because we want it to be inclusive. The website is inclusive and it includes all these other groups like people in to suits and ties and skin head gear and sports gear and rubber lycra and masters and slaves. We didn't want to be exclusive. We wanted to be inclusive of everyone. In order to do that and still make it strong we thought, well let's just call it Fetish Week London. By doing that we could then include underneath that umbrella any number of specifically coded or themed fetish events that we wanted. It would also allow the other bars and venues to do whatever they wanted to do. We have one bar that does a wrestling night. Another one is doing a sports night and another one is doing rubber and another bar has a cigar social. There's a BLUF night happening somewhere. So it really gives people an opportunity to be as creative with what they want to do in their own clubs and I think it allows us to include everyone so people don't feel that when Fetish Week comes out it means that they can't come out. You know, it's not just for leather guys or just for rubber guys. It's for everyone.
L: So what changes have you made for the second year?
A: We had to do a little more work in finding out what other events were happening in London at the same time. Last year we didn't realize that they had a big party on in the park on the Sunday called Love Box. And of course they had Grace Jones performing and lots of other top performers. And very unusual for London on the Sunday, the weather was fantastic, it was brilliant and of course everybody went to the park for this event. We had a barbecue happening that day as well which was not well attended because everybody thought, well the sun is shining so we don't want to be stuck in a barbecue somewhere, we're going to go off to the park and go to the concert and have a good time. So that event we ditched. But I think also because of the popularity of year one and also by the bars and clubs doing the own things, some of the other bars have also decided we're going to start doing our events earlier in the week like on the Monday or the Tuesday night. So even though it's called Fetish Week London and initially had it from the Thursday to the Sunday, we've not extended it from the Monday to the Sunday. So it's practically a full week of events which gives the local guys a little more to do in the week if they're inclined to do so. Whether or not it will encourage people to come to London a little bit earlier remains to be seen but we know too that people have jobs and may not be able to travel until Thursday or Friday and may miss the stuff early in the week but at least the local London crowd can start to get their toes in at the start of the week if they wish. We have a lot of other people started writing in who wanted to be sponsor or supporters or who wanted to be a promoter of one of the specific parties or events and that's been really good. But also trying to connect the other businesses together which have previously been quite competitive. It's quite refreshing that now this is bringing people together to start to work together, you know, share in promotion or advertising of a particular event and also the Fetish Week. So, yeah, it's turned out good so far.
L: Is there any plan to add a large scale public Sunday event like a Folsom Street Fair?
A: I don't know. It's something that we've thought about but the problem is that now we realize this other big event, this Love Box, which has something like 40 or 50 thousand people out in Hyde Park, will happen every year. Last year I think was the first year that they did it so we now have another big event, even though it a much more public and not a gay event at all, it's a great public London event. But this event will now happen the same Sunday that we're doing Fetish Week so I think that it's an option we're going to really have to weigh very carefully. I won't say that no, we won't do it. You know, we've looked at the idea of it but it hasn't come yet. I think it will be important for us to allow the Fetish Week London to become a little bit more stable, allow it to grow a little bit and watch, we need to keep an eye on how it's growing and how people will respond to it. Then that will also let us know whether or not we should expand it and make it even bigger. You know a street fair would give it credibility but there's no point in doing it if you don't have the people to actually come out and support it. You end up being in the street by yourself. I think it's important for us to give the event a little bit of time to grow and that this year we'll see how year two goes. If it goes well, I think that doing some kind of fair or event or vendor mart or something might definitely be an option for 2012.
L: One of the challenges we face here in the U.S. when producing events is the idea inclusiveness. When we produce events here we look at are they inclusive of all sexualities, are they inclusive of men and women? Various organization and producers handle it in different ways There are some events with are all men, some which are all women, some which are mixed. Is that an issue in London and how do you guys deal with that?
A: Not so much of an issue in London. I think London has a number of other fetish clubs going on that cater to a mixed crowd as well as to the pansexual and heterosexual community. Our Recon London event, Full Fetish, is a male-only event and I think at this point it's become such a staple that people know that and they expect that. We won't have women turn up trying to get in to a Recon fetish night. It's also a bit odd sometimes at various venues and places that we go, we'd like to have an all-male crowd but we know that for employment rights the venues are not allowed to employ a male-only staff. But I think the fetish crowd in London are kind of used to it so if there are women working the venue nobody seems to really be bothered by that. We've just got to make sure that people are really being briefed before hand what they should expect. But very often we get emails from people or from women who want to know well can you guys do something or can I get in to this event or that. It's really just being honest and explaining to people that it's a male-only event, that I'm sorry but women are not allowed. But this doesn't say that in the future we might not do some other kind of event which might allow women in. I think that if we graduated in a few years time to doing some kind of fair or vendor area or something it would definitely be open to women, heterosexual and lesbian community as well. Everybody would be welcome to it. This is something that we've actually discussed at length and I think it will be quite important to also include these people in.
L: What is the most fun part of Fetish Week London for you?
A: I think the fun part for me comes when the actual, when the week arrives and it's putting together the schedule beforehand of the staff I'm having to help me build out and to organize and run the various events. The building that process and the putting it together is actually good fun for me. It's a lot of work and most people hate doing it but I actually enjoy doing it and seeing it come together. When the party begins, and hopefully we get the door open on time, but when the party begins and people start filling in and they start dancing and having a good time and you can see people chatting and socializing, "Oh my god I haven't seen you in a while," I think that's the really, that's the good part. I think also because we have the liberty, unlike a lot of U.S. cities, to have a darkroom or a playroom space, the venue that I'm using for this year's main party on the Saturday night is absolutely enormous, we're going to have two complete railway arches as our darkroom space. So it's definitely going to be the biggest fetish darkroom or fetish playroom that London has ever seen. I think it will be quite interesting to see how people use it. If people use it well, then that will be good fun for me. I like at the events, walking around and just seeing how people use the space and if I think it's being used the way I want it to be used then that's good for me but I also take note, you know people are very often quite brave and they move equipment around so I'm also keeping an eye out for what people themselves are doing. You know, they'll disconnect lights, they'll move things around so it's also quite interesting. So doing the event it's also fun learning from the people who are attending the event.
L: Can you give us an idea of the differences of how you can incorporate a darkroom and alcohol service in the UK versus here in the United States?
A: I completely understand the concern that the U.S. states have when it comes to darkrooms and alcohol and the type of play that's involved with fetish parties. One thing that we try to make sure that we always do is that every event that we have, we'd like to think that people are going to be responsible for themselves but we know that they're not always going to be that way. So we have to try and be guardians and responsible for them, but without actually shoving it down their faces, if that makes any sense. I always make sure at parties that we do that we have a medic, we have a first aider, we have a medic room, there's a separate area for medic so if need be, just in case somebody is a little irresponsible with drugs or something. I know that in America at some of the bigger events this is a very, very big problem. In London it's a very big problem on the circuit scene and a little bit of a problem on the fetish scene. We also try to do a very strict bag search when people are coming in. We confiscate anything pertaining to any illegal substances that we find on people. We also have signs up to let people know what we expect. I think that this many years going down the road people tend to be a little bit more responsible. When it comes to the whole thing with the dark room a lot of venues are kind of okay with this. We also just have to make sure that we ourselves are there to monitor so we always have someone who is walking around and seeing what's happening and making sure that people are playing responsibly and that people are being responsible for what they're doing, that they're not abusing or encroaching on anyone else's or anyone else's play, you know not overstepping the mark. That's definitely something that we try to keep an eye on. People generally just want to come on and have a good time. I think that Europeans in general are completely spoiled by the whole concept of the darkroom and the play area. You know, they never think anything about it, they just expect that when they come to a party or to a bar that it's going to be there. In European cities, every bar that you go to probably has a dark room or has some kind of cruising area. We know that this can sometimes can get a little crowded and can get out of hand so we try the best we can to have some kind of a safety feature in place. Also in designing it, you know the layout has to be such that if there is some kind of problem or some kind of issue that we can get in to or out of it, or get people in to our out of it as quickly as possible. There were lots of safety checks in place as well. We always do a risk assessment on the whole area, we try and be as responsible as we possibly can. The same issue also comes up as to whether people are having, what kind of sex people are having. My stand on it is that we don't intend to be the sex police, but I like to be able to make sure that we give people the option to make a favorable decision on their sexual practices by providing condoms and lubes. We put them out in various places around the venue the whole night. Sometimes we'll go through, for one of our London events we'll easily go through 4 or 5 thousand condoms in one night. It's great that people are using them even though we know that everybody doesn't use them. We just like to be able to make sure people put them at access points where people can get to them easier and don't think okay there's not one here and I'm in the throes of passion and I'm not going to use it. Normally if you're in the throes of passion you're not more than 5 feet away from somewhere where we have condoms and lube. Thinking about things like that when you're planning the event is also very important for us.
L: Where can people get information on Fetish Week London?
A: We created a separate website for Fetish Week London - www.fetishweek.com. Of course we also have information on the Recon website as well on the events page. We've also worked it out with a lot of our sponsor and supporters and the bars and clubs that they're also putting information out. Some of them are quite brilliant. We've got Folsom Events San Francisco is one of the sponsors, the BLF from Berlin is one of our sponsors and supporters and the Rob Berlin store which very popular as well as several of the London sponsors and these people all have newsletters that they get out. So, we're using all of these different outlets to get the word out. People are using Facebook and we've got a Recon Facebook page where the information will be set up very shortly. But basically it's fetishweek.com where you can find everything you need to know about Fetish Week London.
To avoid any confusion, there is not a BLUF night currently scheduled in London during Fetish Week 2011. There may be many other events that BLUF members will find interesting, but we have no plans to organise a specific BLUF party.
Posted by: Nigel Whitfield, BLUF webmaster | 04/01/2011 at 01:55 PM