The former, with its government buildings, imposing 18th and 19th century Austro-Hungarian architecture and modern shops, contrasts markedly with the latter, with its narrow medieval streets, leading to the Gothic Zagreb Cathedral and 13th century St Mark’s Church.

Between the two areas runs the pedestrianised Tkalčićeva Street, where almost every door leads to a café, bar or restaurant and most have large covered outdoor dining areas facing their frontages.

Our walkabouts gave us healthy appetites and we were able to try out several different eateries that all offered great value when compared to London or even Berlin prices — on average about a third cheaper than equivalent offerings back home.

Eventually though, we had to stop being tourists and focus on preparing for Saturday night’s party. The day had been gloriously sunny, and it was still light when we set off on our walk to the venue.

Once inside the club’s entrance, it soon became clear that the internal layout closely followed the levels of the underground car park to which it was attached.

Spiralling down through three mineshaft-like levels, it has obvious appeal for those who like to do their clubbing in a dungeon-like space.

Unfortunately though, the layout of the two lower levels was not ideal for Bestiarum’s performance requirements, hence no great surprise that the event has moved this year.

All the performers had to do their shows on a small stage that took up most of the floorspace of the venue’s minimal mezzanine level, leaving very little room to accommodate an audience.

DJs — including Torture Garden’s Allen TG — worked in a booth sticking out from the opposite wall, midway between the basement (with its dungeon /play space set-up) and mezzanine floors.

Still, all the acts — entertainingly MC’d by Berlin-based American Scotty the Blue Bunny — delivered their performances in the true spirit of show business, a fact appreciated by the friendly and enthusiastic crowd.

After opening turn Andreas Ropes from Italy had finished tying up his shy-but-game female subject, Scotty took the spotlight to chat for a while before introducing Marnie, doing the first of two shows.

Clad in yellow latex with, as usual, various inflatables secreted about her person, she quickly proved with her first show that she had a lot of heart: three times as much as normal, in fact.

Hailing from New Mexico, Apollo Garcia took the stage to deliver what at first seemed to be some kind of hellfire bible-bashing sermon. But by the time he’d stripped down to his undies, he may have brought a whole new meaning to the term ‘lay preacher’.

Marnie’s second show was an old favourite of mine from her substantial repertoire, involving an all-white latex outfit, a vigorous bout of self-stapling and copious quantities of fake blood.

Sado Opera describe themselves as a ‘Russian-German music and show band’, but this hardly does justice to their brand of hi-energy, disco-fuelled stage antics

Final act Sado Opera describe themselves on Facebook as a “Russian-German music and show band”, but this hardly does justice to their brand of hi-energy, disco-fuelled stage antics.

Though rather long by fetish performance standards, their show delivered real crowd-pleasing value, putting big smiles on the faces of everyone who was watching and sparking levels of audience participation akin to Torture Garden’s legendary New Year’s Eve countdown shows.

Brilliant fun, and an act that could surely brighten up many more fetish events.

But what of the clubbers themselves? I chatted to, and photographed, a number of them, mainly in the upstairs bar area. They were a young crowd, and as with the folk I’d met around Zagreb’s streets in the past couple of days, they were friendly, and for the most part happy to engage in conversation and posing.

A few nervously avoided the camera, but most seemed happy to have their looks recorded for posterity.

With less choice of fetish designers in the region, I wasn’t expecting to see too many latex outfits, but still there was leather, corsets and shiny fabrics aplenty.

And there were those two latex bunnies in their complementary black and white outfits, who unsurprisingly crop up in quite a few of my gallery pix in this article, and in the main banner above.

Beneath the two bunny hoods, I discovered, were Absinthia Stacy (black bunny) and Iris Thespider (white bunny) — the latter better known to me now as Iris of House of Harlot, who made both costumes. To say they made a cute pair would be the understatement of the year.

To conclude: although I won’t be able to join in the fun at Bestiarum this November, I really hope it builds on the promising — and, I have to say, most welcoming — vibe of last year’s event.

Of course Zagreb in November will be cooler and damper than in glorious July. But I’d be willing to bet the party atmosphere will be every bit as warm as during my brief summer visit last year.

bestiarum.com/bestiarum-4