Four years ago, I wrote this about going to the Dallas Fetish Ball:
The Church is too small for the event; you can’t walk around or talk to people. The stage is hard to see unless you’re upstairs on the balcony. They’d moved the “play space” outside to the porch, which meant the place you could go if it was too noisy was unavailable unless you wanted to climb up to the rooftop-which was freezing. And the “energy” was…not there. Sure there’s a lot of people dressing up, but you kind of felt like that’s what it was-dress up. The people who I knew were seriously into the lifestyle who were there sort of stood out. Am I being jaded? Maybe? We left about 12:30-and people were still waiting to get in.
I know this is a big event in Dallas-between this and the Black and Blue Ball (done by the same people) there’s no other open fetish events. It’s a professional event, with lots of performers (though they seem to be the same ones every year). So they should know what they are doing. And considering the state of fetish/bdsm in Dallas, I shouldn’t be critical. But do you support something because it’s there, or do it because it’s worth your time?
So, what’s changed? The venue is still too small-by 11 PM it was nearly impossible to get around and once the show starts forget about moving. They put in a larger stage that’s higher so you can see things a bit better but if you’re not in one of the reserved seats on the balcony you it’s difficult. They got rid of the outside play space years ago, and the indoor space is taken over by a vendor’s area.
There was a new twist this year-every seat in the Church was reserved. Including the benches in the front bar area. So there was no place to sit down until after 11 PM when they opened the rooftop, and if you got lucky you could grab a seat on one of the couches. Fortunately it was not a cold night, and there was no bar open.
The show? Well, if you’ve seen one fetish show…
At least this year they maintained the dress code most of the time I was there. And I got to see a couple of people from Twitter who were fabulous. But by midnight, I was ready to go.
I really want to like the Fetish Ball unreservedly, but I just can’t. Maybe I am getting too old for this…