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Last weekend I took the pup (boyfriend) to Hotwired, one of London’s biggest underground rubber and leather parties.
The venue, Ewer St Car Park in Southwark, is huge, consisting of segmented rooms each filled with various activities leading off the main entrance tunnel. The event started at 10 and we were first in line!
After we made it through the door we were led down a long tunnel, past the dance floor and bar areas. Then in the centre of the tunnel was the ‘cloakroom’ area where the adventure began.
Queues
In no time the place was heaving. The pup and I were pretty quick at getting into our gear and by the time we changed the cloakroom line was disappearing around the corner and down the tunnel with well over 100 people waiting. The queue never went down. They say that some people were in the queue so long that empires rose and fell and then they had to queue up again to get their coats back and that a few didn’t make it at all and their withered husks were found clutching fading cloakroom tickets.
Organisational issues aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It was a very inclusive event, attracting a lot (emphasis on a lot) of people, male and female, with different interests and ideas. There were a wide range of kinks represented, you had huge muscle bears in leather, skinny puppy twinks and rubbered-up gimps on leashes. All thanks to the strict dress code.
Loos
The pup and I explored most of the areas although we didn’t travel too far into the nether regions in case we didn’t make it back out. From what we saw a lot of effort and some random ideas had been put into the place: there was a room full of portable toilets and urinals, with plenty of space for the odd human toilet. Another room was equipped with a small caravan, which we almost went into, but which we were scared off from by the exuberant rocking and rutting groans emanating from within – but someone was quite clearly having fun.
There was an area at the end of the tunnel which was curtained off but from a brief glance, I am pretty sure there were swings in there. The music on the dance area was very good although I spent a lot of the night in the social areas where I finally managed to catch-up with event photographer Chris Jepson – a thoroughly nice chap whose work I really admire.
Booze
Everyone who I spoke to that night seemed very friendly and chatty, although that could have been the alcohol! Overall, it was a great event, as me and the pup got to hang out with all our puppy friends and handlers, and we made some new friends too.
The only downer was the epic waiting time for the cloakroom – perhaps they weren’t expecting so many people (I personally counted over 1,000 – seriously)?
Drink prices were what you would expect for an event like this, but I would always recommend having a few pre-drinks if cash is in short supply.
If you plan on going next year, maybe take a rucksack.
Check out the official event photos by Chris Jepson for more.
