Website Logo

Humans of Fetish.com Meet at the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar

Fetish.com is the place to meet kinky people online, right? But what happens when a bunch of our online kinksters in the UK meet up in real life? We sent Victoria Blisse to the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar to find out!


Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar (BBB) is a long-standing market and after-party event that kinky people from across the UK (and sometimes further afield) travel to every 2nd Sunday of the month to buy new, beautiful and intriguing kink kit and meet up with other BDSM and fetish enthusiasts. In May 2019, a group of around 30 Fetish.com regulars took the trip to the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar, too.

Why? Well, I believe ElleFire a member from Minnesota, USA was the catalyst. She only signed up to Fetish.com late last year but has jumped into fetish with both feet and great enthusiasm. Talking to another member, Jinx about the BBB, she decided to come on over to the UK to experience it.  From there, Fetish.com member BeardedSi took the reins and made the whole get together happen.

Of course, I had to get in on the fun. Turning up to the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar with a huge bag of Fetish.com merch and a smile, I soon tracked down the gang, and I can confirm we are real — funny, sexy, vibrant people brought together by Fetish.com.
 

Meet the Fetish.com Kink Community   

I asked a few of these amazing humans from our kink community to tell me more about them, their relationships, and what they think of Fetish.com. Here's what they had to say...

Article Image Template - Fetish.com (21).png


What a lovely bunch of... kinksters! Fetish.com members hit the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar. 

ElleFire

Quote

Signed up: October 2018.
Kinky connections made: Lots of friends who I’m going to visit and stay with while in the UK.
Likes about Fetish.com: I knew for ages I was kinky but only started to explore it more when I started at Fetish.com. I’m able to use the chat room to ask questions and get lots of answers from lots of different people. I can be all the way me.


Jinx and MrT75

Quote

Met on Fetish.com: One year ago.
Kinky connections made: We met via PM and clicked then we met in real life for a pub lunch about four weeks later. There’s a bit of distance between us, so it’s hard to arrange to meet in real life, so Fetish.com provides a way to connect between times.
Likes about Fetish.com: It’s where I communicate with my community.


Liam52 and Lilmonster

Quote

Met on Fetish.com: Three months ago.
Met in real life: One month ago.
Likes about Fetish.com: Fetish.com brought us together, we’ve met lots of fantastic people, it’s very important to us.


BerryBrighton

Quote

Kinky connections made: I’ve made loads of really good friends from all over the world. Including Ellefire who I’ve had staying with me.
Likes about Fetish.com: I love it! I love the social aspect, especially the chat rooms - it’s like my extended family.


Roietrobert

Quote

Likes about Fetish.com: It’s moderated, so I feel safe and secure. Other dating sites are full of scams and no genuine users. Here I feel like part of a family.


Cum4meslowly

Quote

Signed up: Six months ago.
Likes about Fetish.com: It’s a place to chat about intimate things.


Firewitch, Mrchristopher70 and Lillyth

Quote

Signed up: October 2017 and December 2018 (for Lillyth).
Kinky connections made: Met in the chat room and formed a Poly triad with the first date being this BBB meet up.
Likes about Fetish.com: We love the BDSM chat, forum and the treasure hunts!


Only one person from the people I asked had been to Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar before, but everyone had a blast browsing the stalls filled with everything from erotic books to paddles, latex to kinky jewellery, wax play candles to floggers.

Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar Promo | LatexFashionTV

The demo of the day was erotic impact play, and we got a mention in the introduction, the assembled group of Fetish.com members whooped and hollered with great enthusiasm at that! Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar has its aftermath after party where you can play with your new kit and try out new things to you, but what goes on at the BBB party stays at the BBB. :smiling_imp: 

It was a fantastic day, proving that you can take friendships and relationships formed online into the real world. I’m sure there will be another meet up soon, maybe YOU could be part of it? 
 

Victoria Blisse was an erotic author and sex-positive Reverend. She helped shape fetish.com and FET from the very beginning and we're eternally grateful for her passion and creativity. Sadly, she passed away in January 2024. We hope that whenever her articles are read, she'll be honored.

signup_600x150_1803_v4A_EN.gif


 

Join our kink community and make connections in our chat rooms and forums. Don't forget to check out our events listings to find and meet kinky people in real life. :D  
 

Magazine Banner - Join Now [Fetish.com] (1)-min.jpg

12 Comments

Add a comment


    Related Discussions

    Related Discussions

    Does Lived Experience Shape Our Learning Curve in the Kink Community?

    Recently, I made a post on a different forum (not this one). This one is about how learning curve can be hampered when there is a difference in lived experience (last time, I realised that differences in communication style may not be enough to explain that: flatlined progress). I am saying that you do not have to be new to kink to struggle in these regards, if you struggle with the dominant social culture of the community, and I have felt in my own experiences misunderstood, or actively misread at times. Not because I have been resistant but the way how, in my bid to learn, I have been probed to uncover "reasons" why, or provided advice that can be flippant, unsolicited or corrective. I believe that a community that claims to prioritise informed consent can still be ostracising, especially if boundaries are imagined and then claimed to not be observed. I have argued that the idea of rules at times can feel stifling or arbitrary, even if necessary to the functioning of the group. It is fair to request some common grounds to be observed, but I do not think the ethical boundaries become more healthy when someone with an outside perspective is unfairly penalised before they have even considered requesting to be involved in BDSM. The idea of a "challenge" in this instance causes "in-group" threat, alarm, panic and distress which leads to pack mentality (dog piles, brigading, malicious communications, etc.). I don't think this causes outsiders to become more reasonable in response, I believe it triggers the same fight or flight reaction, because some kind of deviation, within reason, is required, some kind of light probing or testing of the group's meta-narrative. Without that, the group becomes an echo chamber, where it presupposes certain rules are just correct, advanced, moral, without seriously testing how those parameters work in practice, or just being open to discussion. An outsider could be a pathogen, they could be a medicine, gut bacteria or they could be pollen. We have to question how our bodies react to these things to stay healthy. On a collective scale, always acting like white *** cells, can cause us to become bullies. In fact, sometimes it is the predators who act as guardians, while accusing others of what they themselves, are guilty of, to win influence over group dynamics. I consider this a serious problem with unchallenged authority in general, but being questioning of authority is too frequently treated with great distrust and unnecessary rigidity. I have attempted to engage with BDSM, both the online forum and local scene, for some years, and struggled not for a lack of curiosity or awareness on my behalf, but truthfully there just has not been that mutual recognition. I do feel there are many bad faith actors in position of influence, too many. Though you could say just one is one too many, I would say that there really is enough of them to have shaped my personal experience. This is enough not just to frame me as "new" but "unready", "immature", "entitled", "different", etc. Admissions that I have struggled have lead to excessive scrutiny, hostile speculation, character assassination, and advice that is far too general (and most likely already tried) to be useful. I have noticed a tendency for group responses to turn sour at a rate that is alarming and unnerving, no matter how tolerant or diverse the kink community prides itself to be. 19 Likes 7 Replies· 8 months ago

    Has anyone ever come across a family member or friends in the BDSM community?

    How did that go? Did you guys just pretend like it never happened or are you more open? Just kind of curious how people would handle that situation. Specifically, if you came across a parent or sibling. I can only imagine family dinners would be awkward. My thought is "If you saw me then that means you were on there too, so mind your own business." 48 Likes 32 Replies· over 1 year ago

    A forgotten basic, in the BDSM community and in general

    I was going to start by telling you all about an especially vile - and bizarre - encounter I recently had (not this week, the week before) which led me to wanting to make this post. Except I've realised, the message doesn't need it. A lot of posts get made asking for advice about different aspects of our community, and a great deal gets made about rules. How things ought to be done. Protocol. Etiquette. These things have their place, but especially as this world has opened up and become more accessible (which is not inherently a good thing) some of the simpler tenets (fun, enjoyment!) have become lost amongst the noise. I'm not here to start a debate, although I do want to share a lesson. I look around and I see conflict on almost every thread. People seeking a reason to take things the wrong way, making assumptions about each other, dragging other down in some ghastly misguided effort to pull themselves to some perceived "top". Only, when we make an effort to co-operate and respect one another, that is when the whole community rises and we all benefit. So my back-to-basics Kink Academy tip for today, is simply to be kind. Be kind to yourself, be kind to your kinky p*ers, be kind to your prospective partners in vetting and negotiation, be kind to those you are in dynamics with, be kind to those people you don't get along or disagree with. Your connections will be better for it. I can already hear the naysayers shouting that it's a cutthroat world and you have to fight for your place, fight for attention, stand out. To those with that mentality I would say you must have heard the proverb you catch more flies with honey that with vinegar. How is being a d**k/b*tch working out for you so far? It's a rough, bitter world out there at the moment folks, and we never truly know what the next person is going through. Enjoy your weekend 🧡 114 Likes 28 Replies· over 1 year ago

    Being poly to that of a swinger in the kink community

    For those of us who are Poly and in open relationships, what do you feel is the difference between being poly to that of being a swinger? Now before this becomes a royal debate I would like people to give open honest and positive input and respect each other's views. For me being poly it's all about being able to express love to more than just one person and being capable of having more than one relationship. Yes I tried the swinger lifestyle in my younger days, it was fun for a period of time but then it just became a free-for-all fuck fest and that is just not what I wanted because I became emotionally connected to one woman and she was the main one I wanted to be with. Unfortunately the swing lifestyle is what broke us apart which left me devastated and regretted even being a part of that lifestyle. Yes I am very much Daddy Dom because that is truly who I am and being Poly adds to that. 22 Likes 19 Replies· over 1 year ago

    Kink community Jackson Michigan

    I'm very new to trying to explore my kinks and would like to get in touch with the kink community in Jackson Michigan idk where one goes for events or meet ups or how any of this works any help would be appreciated. 9 Likes 2 Replies· almost 2 years ago