So my husband and I had a short visit to London as a vacation, and though it was not planned, we were coincidentally there during Fetish Week London. Something I’ve seen on the Recon app for years, but never thought I’d ever actually attend–one, because we live in Los Angeles, and two, we generally don’t attend public kink events, as we both tend to be very private people. However, when this opportunity presented itself, even we felt we had to at least stop by.
I reached out to a few London people I’ve messaged over the years, and Phantom Bondage was very generous in helping me with navigating the event as a first timer. And going to the Master Class seemed to be a good way for us to participate while still able to blend into the background.
It was surreal to be there at Electrowerkz, and actually get to meet and speak with Phantom and Deviant Prince. I also was introduced to Broken Rebel and Knot Rowan, though I didn’t get to speak with them much. Still, it was beyond cool to see them in person. Not only that, but I met and got a pic with Addicted to Ropes, though that pic is for him and I only (and a few select friends that I know very well). The pics below are the location of the meet, and some pics I took of the Masterclass.
Sadly, I didn’t get to have a scene with anyone while there in London, but part of me didn’t care all that much. Phantom and Deviant Prince were both very generous and kind with their time talking with me. Phantom told me my website helped helped him ages ago in realizing and cementing his own interests, and he had shown it to Deviant Prince prior to the event. The tweet screenshot below is the event I actually witnessed in person (click it to see the real tweet and accompanying video–though it may not work if you aren’t signed in to an account).
Since I was in London, we had to stop by Regulation, the main kink store, which we did the next day after the Master Class. While I enjoyed it, I’ve also been to the Mr. S Leather store in San Francisco multiple times, as well as The Stockroom in Los Angeles. While I do feel the store was very good, there wasn’t much there I either didn’t already have (admittedly, over the years, I had already ordered some of their more unique gear online) or had seen before. Though I did buy a shirt with the store logo on it, because it was still cool and wanted a memory of take home.
But here’s the best part: while we were browsing in the store, we ran into both Phantom and Deviant Prince yet again. Totally unplanned coincidence! Does that make me a local London kinster now? Okay, it definitely doesn’t, but it does show that the kink world can be a small one.
Separately, I also got to met one other longtime kinkster I’ve chatted with for years (and has appeared here on the blog), but he now wishes to remain private. That makes three different kink people I got to spend significant time with that I had never meet before in person. It was very surreal to be able to meet them all, especially given my husband and I were only in London for 2.5 days.
After this (and a few other non-kinky tourist things), we stopped by Amsterdam–which turns out to have not one, not two, but three separate gay fetish stores, all walking distance from each other! More on that next week.
