DOMINANT PERSPECTIVE: ‘Face of GFB 2022’ Eva Oh (in red) poses with some other ‘ladies you might like to look up to’, after the Ball shows at Club Ost finished (photo: Tony Mitchell)
GERMAN FETISH BALL cont’d
A fun time photographing people
After the shows finished, most of the audience departed the auditorium for the dance areas and other spaces in the venue.
But Cole and I stuck around on the top floor as again there were a fair number of people who were keen to get photographed and/or filmed in their finery. And in this well-lit part of the venue, we could all actually see each other properly.
A lot of guests — often in groups — wanted to pose in front of the giant GFB artwork at the far end of the catwalk that had earlier provided the backdrop for the models emerging from backstage to parade their outfits.
We got quite a photo production line going, with Cole kindly using his video light to throw extra illumination onto those posing for my pictures, as well as for his own filming.
Basically, these post-show encounters provided not only some of the evening’s best people-shooting opportunities, but also some of its most entertaining social interactions, especially with visiting UK guests.
It even — even! — provided the chance to sit down for a bit, and to chat with a few people who turned out to be enjoying their first GFB — such as Brits Alex BT Ripper and Clair Clarke.
It also provide an unexpected opportunity to photograph performer Mie Neko up a ladder dismantling her suspension equipment while still dressed in her very cute stage outfit.
But of course, all good things come to an end, and it was only a matter of time before security staff turned up to clear us all out so they could shut the top floor down.
MIE NEKO, up a ladder after the Ball shows, dismantles her shibari suspension gear (Tony M)
Room for one last dark encounter
So Cole and I headed downstairs, wondering if there was much point in hanging around longer if the best space for photography was now closed.
During our descent, we stumbled upon a small, dark room where people were all seated around the walls. Nobody seemed to be talking to each other but I thought I caught the odd disapproving look. In the middle was a low table that we both used as a packing station to put our camera gear away.
Only after we’d departed the slightly tense atmosphere of this space did it dawn that we might have just taken our cameras into the couples’ room, which of course is normally verboten.
No photos were taken, so no harm was done. But neither was any coupling, as far as I could tell. Apologies if we put anyone off their stroke.
An example of model behaviour
As we reached the ground floor, we encountered three models from the latex shows coming down a back staircase that presumably led to the backstage area.
They stopped to greet us cheerfully, and one of them decided to hook one leg over the metal handrail and stretch her body languidly along it in a classic ‘porn girl’ pose. This seemed quite bold, given the shortness of her latex dress and the apparent absence of underwear.
Models, eh? Why do they only do that sort of thing after you’ve packed your camera away?! (The answer is probably contained in the question.)
Leaving the club building, Cole and I crossed the yard where the canvas-topped, open-air cloakroom was located, and headed for the street exit.
Cloakroom – or open-air joke room?
Owing to the venue’s proximity to the river, the night air was already quite chilly. So I couldn’t help thinking about the hundreds of latex-clad revellers who would be making the same journey later when it was even colder.
Some would doubtless be needing to change there, not just put a coat on over their outfit. Catching a chill because the cloakroom is substantially exposed to the elements doesn’t seem like the ideal end to a night of glorious pervery, does it?
I must relay, however, that GFB host René has explained the ‘tent’ supplied for the cloakroom was not the fully-enclosed type he ordered. He says he doesn’t know how this misunderstanding occurred, and has apologised for the mix-up.
Sadly, though, the cloakroom arrangements were not the only aspects that attracted criticism from attendees at the 2022 Ball.
Some other venue issues raised
Quite a few people complained that the rooms on the lower floors were too dark. Others said they couldn’t even get into the top floor space to watch the shows — leading to some of the most vocal complaints I heard during the evening.
It’s a simple fact that most club venues can hold more people in total than they can accommodate just in the space(s) they provide specifically for performances. But this doesn’t become a critical issue as long as a proportion of the crowd is more interested in dancing, say, than in watching the shows.
But at an event like the German Fetish Ball, where the shows are a more important element of the overall experience, you would have to assume that a larger proportion of the crowd would want to watch them than in a regular club filled with regular clubbers..
So I do find myself querying the rationale of Ost’s floor-level catwalk with seating on three sides.
A raised stage with a standing-only audience (as at Spindler & Klatt and Matrix in earlier times) would surely have allowed a lot more people in to watch, as well as making show photography easier.
PHOTOGRAPHERS Richard Bailey and Blende666 secure the best two shooting positions (Tony M)
Also, the indoor smoking permitted at Club Ost (the night after many had already suffered it at KitKat) was not popular with UK visitors.
I guess we have become accustomed to British laws against indoor smoking in public places actually being observed, unlike in Berlin,
where it seems authorised exemptions are sometimes wrongly claimed to apply.
In fairness, I should add that it is generally Berlin venues, not individual event organisers, who control what happens about smoking on their premises.
And at the same time, we should not forget the circumstances under which the GFB’s entire 2022 comeback programme had to be organised. This includes there being only three full months to finalise everything once the May dates had been confirmed as viable.
We should also remember that tickets and passes originally purchased for the 2020 event were either refunded or transferred, first to the projected 2021 dates and then to May 2022.
This means organisers Xklusiv had to plan the 2022 return on something close to a 2020 budget, minus any unrecoupable costs from promoting the cancelled 2020 and 2021 dates.
So how did Club Ost shape up?
I won’t pretend that, as a venue for the German Fetish Ball, Club Ost was the perfect replacement for Spindler & Klatt. However, even if there were some gripes about individual aspects of the night, it seems that plenty of folk still managed to have a pretty good time there.
But with luck, Ost will end up acting as a stand-in for only this one year anyway — René seems pretty optimistic that the Ball will be able to return to S&K in 2023. And that, I think, is what most GFB fans would prefer — especially if they happen to be non-smokers!
AFTERMATH AND GOODBYES
With a second relatively early finish after the Ball’s pretty intense shooting demands, Cole and I had seriously considered the possibility of Sunday’s GFB Breakfast and Farewell at bar/restaurant Alex on Mercedes Platz.
But guess who forgot to check the timings on the GFB website? Consequently, we arrived just after the brunch buffet had closed, duh!
Not to worry though; closer to the Arena, at the entrance to East Side Mall, Starbucks beckoned. Sorted! Plus, it wasn’t that long before the early evening start of the goodbye dinner at Kreuzberg restaurant Amrit.
Our traditional Indian farewell…
Pre-covid, this unofficial gathering had grown over several years to around 50 people — mostly (but not exclusively) GFB veterans. We would turn up, flash-mob style, occupy adjacent rows of outdoor tables, and feast on the restaurant’s generous Indian food portions and cheap cocktails.
Usually this dinner would include GFB host René, but this year prior commitments obliged him to miss out. And some other regulars were also absent, even though they’d been at the Ball the previous night.
So the dinner party attendance was down to about half its previous numbers — but was nevertheless a jolly affair. And its early finish time meant that quite a few of us were not yet ready for the socialising to stop.
…and then to a gin palace in the sky
In earlier years many of us would have gone on to the models’ karaoke night on Warschauer Str. In its absence this year, Digital Lioness proposed we head over to the Motel One where she was staying, to sample its rooftop bar, which also happened to be one of the largest gin joints in the city.
Well why not? An Uber ride later, a bunch of us were sitting in that very bar, at a long, narrow table that was basically an extension of the bar counter itself, leafing through a list of gins that was even longer.
I didn’t know Berlin had its own gins, and I certainly didn’t know I would take such a liking to the cucumber variety (of which Berlin now boasts its own organic brand: Spree Gin, made with Demeter Spreewald gherkins).
This gathering provided my first opportunity to catch up on some US gossip from pals Shea Hovey and Ian Dutton. I don’t remember too much of what happened later. Apparently I got a bit tipsy, to the amusement of all.
SPREE GIN, Berlin’s first organic gin. Cucumber flavoured, it proved perfect for goodbye cocktails
Monday lunch with Kylie Marilyn
Going-home day finally arrived on Monday, bringing with it the need to consider ways of avoiding a repeat of the multiple S-bahn screw-ups that had ruined my journey from airport to city centre five days previously.
Happily, I got a message from Psycatt to say she’d changed her return flight to the same late afternoon one as mine, so we could travel back together.
This was fantastic news, not only because she’s good company but also: we could share a cab to the airport. We agreed we would check out of the nhow, leave our bags in temporary storage there, and head out somewhere local like Mercedes Platz for an actual lunch — my first in almost a week!
Heading down to the lobby, I found Psycatt chatting with someone I immediately recognised but couldn’t remember why.
This was because in all the previous times I had encountered the svelt individual now standing before me in blue jeans, he’d been inhabiting his fetish alter ego, the legendary rubberdoll Kylie Marilyn.
I felt such a fool! But Kylie, who was with his pal Bernd, owner of Munich label Rebellion Fashion, was very gracious about it. And naturally Psycatt and I weren’t about to say ‘no’ when Kylie suggested they join us for lunch.
We settled on Alex, where Cole and I had failed to attend the GFB Farewell the day before. It turned out to be the perfect way to bring our adventures in Berlin to a close, with Kylie not only a great conversationalist but also generously insisting on buying the meal!
Not such a grim fairytale then!
A few hours later, after a very smooth and relaxed transition thought Brandenburg Airport and an incident-free BA flight, reporter and model were soon saying their goodbyes outside London City Airport and embarking on the last legs of their homeward journeys.
My conclusion, after surviving the return of the GFB to Berlin? This German fairytale might (for its narrator, at least) have started out pretty grim, thanks to those local transport problems upon arrival.
But once initial anxieties about attending crowded events in Berlin had dissipated (which happened very quickly once I was there), I was glad I’d made the effort, and that so many friends had too.
And I was pleasantly surprised I didn’t go home with a dose of covid. In fact I returned with nothing worse than backache from carrying heavy camera gear and suitcases around.
So I guess we can say that, for me anyway, this fairytale had a reasonably happy ending!
german-fetish-ball.de/en
Next German Fetish Ball Weekend (XVIII) dates are: May 17-21, 2023 (Ball venue tbc)
BELOW: 2022 BALL – LAST FOUR GALLERIES: 60 images of people photographed in the top floor performance space at Club Ost after the German Fetish Ball shows finished (all photos: Tony Mitchell).
CLICK/TAP any preview to open its gallery, then click/tap any thumbnail to start slideshow
Catch up with earlier parts of this 3-part report! Read Part One here and Part Two here
Tags: Designers, Fetish Weekends, Latex, Models, Parties, Performers
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