Breaking

EVENTS ROUNDUP: DEC 2021 + 2022

All / Events / Previews / Uncategorized / December 23, 2021

Sakura Strike relaxing at a Club Lash night in Manchester

SAKURA STRIKE relaxes at Manchester’s Club Lash, which hosts one of its Intimate nights on NYE

Final events roundup of the year: End of 2021 + 2022 highlights.

Given the measures various governments have enacted – or are threatening – to curb the spread of Omicron, the fetish events picture for the end of 2021 and early 2022 can probably best be regarded as ‘fluid’. But we’ve surveyed the international scene to bring you a round-up of events that are still supposedly going ahead at time of publication. Each event listed here is linked directly to its promoter’s website or Facebook Events page so that you can get the most up-to-date info that organisers themselves are publishing. Banner: promo image for Torture Garden’s Not New Year’s Eve party in London, by Nic Bezzina

With just a couple of days until Christmas, the spread-rate of the highly infectious Omicron covid variant has become a matter of massive concern for governments and their populations around the globe.

This fast changing public health picture has already prompted numerous administrations to bring in new covid measures that could affect fetish events currently scheduled for the end of 2021 and well into 2022.

In Europe, the Netherlands has gone into lockdown while France and Germany have banned most travellers coming from the UK. With England heavily hit by Omicron, further measures are also expected here, although government procrastination means they won’t now now be introduced until after Christmas.

Meanwhile, America has now hit 800,000 covid deaths, with Omicron said to be present in 36 states.

At the time of producing this update, however, fetish partying in the final days of 2021 has not yet been completely scuppered. And looking further ahead, the listings picture suggests considerable optimism among party hosts that something closer to ‘normal’ fetish partying life can return in 2022.

However, this must be greatly contingent upon what happens with Omicron (or any subsequent variants). If Omicron takes hold in other countries the way it has in the UK, it is hard to imagine that events currently planned for 2022 will not be affected at all.

In such a scenario, some dates will almost certainly be cancelled, while others may only be able to go ahead with extra measures such as reduced capacities, social distancing, masking and mandatory covid status entry checks in force.

So, as you view our selection below of the latest event listings for the UK, Europe, North America and beyond, please bear in mind that

it would be best to regard any upcoming dates as provisional, however firm they appear.

The good news is that the fetish event-hosting community has a good record for treating people properly if circumstances do force changes to be made.

If a date is cancelled or rescheduled, anyone who purchased advance tickets is likely to be offered their choice of either a full refund or a ticket transfer to a future event.

Every event we’ve listed below is linked directly to the organiser’s website or Facebook events page. This allows you to check directly what organisers are publishing about their events — including any covid requirements.

However, when regulations do change, not all event hosts immediately update their published info.

So do satisfy yourself that what you’re seeing really is what’s currently required at the relevant location, by checking national/local regulations on government websites.

This is particularly important if a promoter only states, as some do, that the event follows or complies with covid regulations in force at the time. This puts the onus on you to know what those regulations are or risk being denied access at the door.

if you are using Facebook event info to plan attendance at an event that requires crossing time zones, be aware that Facebook’s use of UTC times can be very misleading.

The example below shows what happens if you view, from the UK, a Facebook event listing for a party in Florida where the time difference is normally five hours behind.

The correct date is shown on Fetish Factory’s flyer art, but Facebook’s UTC times show the party as starting at 3am the following day. Daft.

Correct party date on Fetish Factory flyer with confusing UTC date, as seen from London, in Facebook Event heading below it

CONFUSION TIME: Flyer shows correct date for Fetish Factory January party in Florida, but Facebook UTC-style event heading below it displays different date to viewers in UK time zone

DECEMBER 2021: UK, EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA

There are only a few events in our selection for December 2021. Torture Garden’s traditional Not New Year’s Eve Ball at Ministry of Sound was already sold out (with waiting list) at time of writing, and others may be by the time you see this.

An interesting late addition to pre-Christmas dates is the two-day London Fetish Film Festival being hosted at the Hen & Chickens pub theatre, Highbury Corner. This event will screen all the entries shown in 2020’s online version of the festival, plus surprise extras.