Rope bondage, rubber, hot wax, erotic embarrassment… am I getting warmer?
If you ever wanted to explore your inner leather daddy or just be a pup for a day, now’s your chance with two big fetish events on the same weekend, the Leather Ball and the Church Street Fetish Fair. With a wide variety of related parties running from Fri, Aug 14 to 16, you have a long, long weekend to choose your flavour and explore your inner sub.
Mr Leatherman Toronto’s (MLT) main event is Friday night, the Leather Ball: Strike Edition (it got moved from an outdoor park because of the recent city worker strike). Now at the Courthouse (57 Adelaide St E) the theme is the Garden of Good and Evil, so get out those leather roses. Doors are 10pm to 4am; tix are $35.
Also on Friday the leather and bear bar Black Eagle (457 Church St) plays host to Eastern Canada Leatherman Sir Tony holding rubber bondage demonstrations after 11pm. If the bathhouse is your kink, Steamworks plays host to DJ and producer Dwayne Minard who personally promises to play “dark and sexy tech and tribal house you can fuck to” from 10pm to 4am. For the voyeurs, St Marc Spa (543 Yonge St) is celebrating all things dirty with the return of porn stud fave Tyler Saint at 8pm in a no-holds-barred private show with free lockers for Leather Ball ticket holders (who may want to warm up in the Northbound Leather VIP sling room).
The Church Street Fetish Fair follows on the Sunday, presented by the Church Wellesley Village BIA and Steamworks. This is the sixth installment of the popular outdoor fetish and fantasy event (Churchstreetfetishfair.com).
The fair will see a three-block section of Church St closed to traffic (Gloucester to Alexander; noon till 11pm) to make space for extended patios for local bars and restaurants and three stages (at the entrance to Cawthra Square Park at 519 Church St, in front of the Beer Store at 572 Church St and at Church and Maitland), in addition to a variety of vendors and information booths. This year’s very timely beneficiary is HALCO, the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic (Ontario). Burlesque performances, singing and kink demos are courtesy of Mistress Victoria Windsor, Black Orchid, Fet-Knight, Billy Newton Davis, David Kraft, Boylesque TO, Sofonda Cox, Boytech and many more saucy and sexy fetishists. Wear your best — the fetish wear prize patrol will be on the streets.
The taint of the weekend, Saturday, also offers a variety of debauchery. Pansexual playground Goodhandy’s launches Sodom, a new monthly with Mitchel Raphael, DJ Daniel Paquette and a range of drag performances; doors are at 10pm (see story this page). If you prefer your sex buff and hairless, throw on your black A&F T-shirt and head to Fly (8 Gloucester St) for Noir featuring LA DJ and producer Paulo joined by DJ Jamal and host Walther. Doors from 10pm to 6am; cover runs $10 to $20. For the latex and PVC set, the Black Eagle presents the Mr Rubber Toronto contest starting at 10pm. St Marc Spa continues the XXX action with live porn shoots featuring stars of USAJock.com and Saint, while Steamworks give the boys their beats with DJ Cesar spinning from 10pm to 4am.
Kick off Sunday with MLT’s Leather Brunch at the Churchmouse and Firkin (475 Church St) with hosts Mr Leatherman Toronto 2009 Peter Dillon, Mr Leather Fellowship 2009 Corey Breau and Bootblack Toronto 2009 McG, a fundraiser of Casey House’s Home Hospice Program. For lunch or even dinner, head over to the Black Eagle’s patio for a BBQ with hungry bears and cubs running from 3pm to 9pm.
Then it’s time to give your knees a rest.