Event review: Kinkfest UK 2014

Earlier this year, I was asked to take part and teach workshops at the UK’s largest and newest BDSM educational conference and event, Kinkfest UK. To say it was an honour to have been able to take part is an understatement and over the course of its 2 day debut, it quickly became my favorite event of 2014 and one of my favourite BDSM events of this past decade.

Concentrating more on the safety and knowledge aspects of BDSM during the day by hosting a large and very diverse assortment of workshops and classes, while during the evenings having a large environment to practice in and have fun with new-found skills, as well as having live performances of fire play and Japanese rope bondage, Kinkfest UK has it all. In fact, I think the only thing it lacked was a market.

Held in the same venue as they hold the Midland peer rope evenings at the Xtasia club in Birmingham, I ran several flogging workshops over the course of the event and I also managed to get in some very fun rope (photos below). They have expressed wishes to continue Kinkfest UK as a yearly event and I for one really hope they do. This event was simply awesome and given the chance, I would gleefully attend again.

The First flogging workshop on the 26th July:

My playtime while attending the peer rope workshop on the 26th July:

The last flogging workshop on the 27th July:

My rope model and workshop partner for the event: Jitsuka.
Photos courtesy of Kinkfest UK.
Photography by Red Fox Photography.
All images are copyright © KinkfestUK 2014.

Fire poi practice 17/11/12

After an event filled and incredibly fun weekend, I have returned to my Bristol dungeon feeling emotionally replenished.

No doubt I will be writing up a short story or two about some of the antics that my Benjamin and I got up to, but for the moment I simply wanted to highlight the only media footage that we managed to procure during the course of the two days.

As some will know from reading my previous post, ‘Great balls of fire‘, I have always had desires to learn some of the heavier and performance forms of fire play. I have always had a fascination with flame.

When I received a set of basic fire poi for my birthday a few weeks ago, I was eager to start practicing.

So, in the big warehouse at Exodus UK in the latter of a Saturday afternoon, under the watchful gaze of the venues owner (who regularly plays with fire whips), doused in freezing cold water (so the clothing would be significantly less likely to catch aflame), the chill of winter creeping in, my sexy play partner on standby holding a huge water doused towel (ready to be thrown over anything, including me, should the worst happen) and fire extinguishers at the ready; I began my first attempt at the artform of fire poi.

Thankfully, you use them exactly like you would use a set of dual floggers. However my form still looks quite rigid due to the fact that I was “freezing my arse off”.

Here are the videos, part one and part two of the same practice session, taken using my iPhone (hence the limited resolution) by another watchful friend.

Enjoy.

Great balls of fire.

Despite the title of this blog, this post has nothing to do with Jerry Lee Lewis’ famous 1957 hit and it is lacking balls of any kind (unless used in the slang term, in which case, to do any of my aspirations written in this blog, I will need a lot of ‘balls’), But it has a lot to do with fire. I shall explain:

To date, my blog posts have always centered around what I have done, currently doing, thoughts, fetishes or events. I have never really expressed what I desire to learn, discover and acquire (BDSM or alternative skill set wise) in the hopefully not so distant future.

I have always loved bullwhips, unfortunately the only 8ft bullwhip that I owned was lost to thievery about 8 months ago and it has been too expensive an item to replace given current monetary circumstance (they are not cheap). But aside from trying to reacquire a new 8-10ft kangaroo hide bullwhip (my preferred length), the thought of learning firewhips has always appealed to me. I already have the knowledge of how to use single tail whips, so firewhips seem like the next logical step (that and the fact that fire has always fascinated me). Dual 5-6ft single tails (specially designed for fire play) would probably be perfect and preferred for self training (plus a handy fire extinguisher, just in case, and a submissive who would get a kick out of foaming a Mistress without repercussion if something unintended caught on fire).

 

 

Being incredibly extroverted by nature, you can see why this would be an interest of mine. However, this is not the only form of fire play that I have intentions of eventually learning.

Body angle grinding has also always been a fascination of mine. In this subject I have no experience at all, but like I said, this blog post is about things I eventually hope to learn and do.

 

 

No doubt, the exploration and research of this activity would be an extremely delicate process (999 on speed dial for training in this methinks). Equipment (consisting of a custom reinforced metal plated bikini and an angle grinder) needed, which is also quite costly.

So, as you can see, I do have aspirations. Whether or not any of them come to fruition, only time will tell.