GERMAN FETISH BALL 2016 PREVIEW

And the Marquis show, promoting the recently revitalised and now American-owned brand, will be many people’s first experience of Marquis rubber on a catwalk — unless they caught the Marquis Ninja Show at Easter’s Fetish Evolution.

Without a doubt there are some strong catwalk performers here. But I’m inclined to predict that Tokyo’s fantastic ‘latex art’ label Kurage (pronounced koo-rah-gay) will once again be the show-stopper, as it was at last November’s Dominatrix.

STOP PRESS! Two supporting acts for the Ball have just been announced: London burlesque performer and aerial acrobat Emily Cage, and Edinburgh-based Polish performance artist Skinny Art, aka SkinnyRedhead. We are told to expect one or two more to be added to the bill shortly. We also hear that the identity of this year’s Mistress of Ceremonies will shortly be revealed.

Last year’s supporting bill featured impressive turns by aerial hoop performer Nelly Farouche, RopeMarks (with a bondage suspension featuring Dutch Dame), and aerial tissu artist Mandi Orozco.

We can certainly expect host René and his Mistress of Ceremonies (whoever she may be) to be announcing this year’s European Fetish Awards winners at the Ball, and handing out their trophies as usual.

Last year, those traditionally chosen by the EFA jury — Best Fetish Fashion Design, Best Startup, Best German Brand and Special Award — were augmented by publicly-voted prizes for Dominatrix of the Year and Fetish Model of the Year.

As someone who has now done enough time on the awards jury to be considered an old lag, I am often not believed when I tell people that we jurors usually don’t know which winners our voting has produced until the moment each name is announced onstage. But it’s true!

I have to say the atmosphere at last year’s Ball was one of the best I’ve experienced. In part, this was because the shows weren’t stretched to interminable lengths as they often were in earlier years.

And also perhaps because the audience was full of enough energetic, fun-lovin’ foreigners in addition to the home crowd to ensure that creative costuming and partying passion were both turned up to the max.

I genuinely felt that 2015’s GFB Weekend had reached the critical mass this event always strives for. I know more paying punters would always be nice, but when you get the vibe right, the word gets around and more people should be attracted to attend.

Berlin is the perfect location for an event of this kind. It’s much more reasonably priced than London for everything visitors need to budget for

For so many reasons Berlin remains the perfect location for an event of this kind. It’s much more reasonably priced than London for everything visitors need to budget for.

And the city’s artsy, youthful bohemian character provides the perfect setting for a large-scale perv invasion — even if the odd sniffy venue owner doesn’t think so!

It looks, with Airbnb now well-established, as if more people than ever are trying out Berlin apartment rentals this year as an alternative to traditional hotel rooms.

But if you’re more the hotel type and haven’t yet settled on where to stay, the German Fetish Ball 2016 website does have a list of about a dozen suggested hotels near the main venues for the Ball and Fair, along with a hotel map.

However, as with other parts of the GFB site, this info does need updating. While it now includes favourite Fetishistas haunt nhow Berlin (whose rooms sold out very early this year), it doesn’t include our 2016 base — the new Holiday Inn City East Side, a short walk from Warschauer Strasse station.

One final tip. While we’re all in Berlin, Germany’s Spargelzeit — the white asparagus season — should be in full tilt. To be in Berlin when almost every restaurant is serving this delicacy and not to try it is just unforgivable. So do put it on your list!