Torture Garden hosts four fetish Halloween parties at London venues on Oct 27/28 and Nov 3/4. Saturday 28’s second ‘Undead’ night at Scala will feature wild rubber fashion by Dayne Henderson, who designed the costumes above for a recent music video by Cobrah

FETISH HALLOWEEN PARTIES 2023: WHERE KINK MEETS SPOOKINESS

Fetish Halloween Parties were already established as major annual crowd-pullers in the fetish events calendar by the time covid put the dampener on things back in 2020.

Post-pandemic, Halloween is once again a powerful draw for party-loving pervs who enjoy a bit of creative dalliance with the dark side. But other factors — not least the loss of quite a few venues during the lockdown years — have meant that genuine fetish Halloween parties (those with a proper fetish dresscode and entertainment angled towards kinksters’ tastes) — are a bit thinner on the ground in 2023.

In the UK, London and Torture Garden dominate this year’s fetish Halloween partying scene, which will probably come as no great surprise to anyone. Outside London we’ve found just a couple of events promoting themselves as Fetish Halloween parties, neither of which are on dates very close to actual Halloween. In the Manchester area, Club Lash is hosting Intimate Halloween at The Chambers Studio in Ashton under Lyme on Saturday October 21. Later, down on the South Coast, House of Spank is hosting its Samhain Soiree at Brighton’s Proud Cabaret venue on Thursday November 9.

UK: LONDON – TORTURE GARDEN

Torture Garden promo image for its two ‘Toy Factory’ Halloween parties at Electrowerkz on November 3 and 4 (photo: Talie Rose Eigerland)

In London, Torture Garden is once again about to host not one, nor two, nor three but four fetish Halloween parties on the two weekends either side of October 31. Even taking into account that these TG events now have to be held at venues with half the capacity (or less) of earlier haunts such as the Coronet and SeOne, Torture Garden at Halloween continues to be one of the best places on the planet to celebrate the fusion of kink and spookiness that Halloween facilitates.

This year Torture Garden will again host two pre-Halloween Balls — on Friday and Saturday October 27 and 28 — followed by two post-Halloween Balls — on Friday and Saturday November 3 and 4. TG’s Undead Balls 1 and 2 will take place at Scala, Kings Cross, while Balls 3 and 4, tagged Toy Factory, will be held at Islington’s Electrowerkz.

Shows announced so far include Alenee Aisha, Dayne Henderson (latex fashion), Petty Nonsense, J’Adore la Vie, Keri Gold and Eve Kann Costume. Expect more names to be added, but note: all performers are not scheduled for all nights. So if you want to catch a particular act, do check the Torture Garden website for the specific dates they’re scheduled to appear.

EUROPE: AMSTERDAM, BERLIN, PARIS & ZURICH

Parisian pervs can celebrate Halloween at the spooky Pavillons des Étangs (interior, above left) where Nuit Dèmonia stages its Inferno Fetish Horror Party on Sat Oct 28. Above right: fabulous promo image for Wasteland Halloween Ball, also Oct 28, by Josefien Hoekstra

Continental Europe’s biggest fetish Halloween celebration has traditionally been Wasteland’s Official Halloween Ball. This year’s edition takes place on Saturday October 28 at Amsterdam’s multi-space ‘underground’ venue Radion. Wasteland has a well-earned reputation for staging great shows, but at our publication time, it had announced no details of its upcoming Halloween performances.

Berlin, city of nightclubs, is probably playing host at the end of October to numerous Halloween-themed events that are not aimed at the kink crowd. However, KitKatClub’s Saturday October 28 edition of its weekly CarneBall Bizarre night should be a pretty safe bet as a fetish Halloween affair. Sadly, as the club only publishes its event schedules weekly, for the seven days immediately ahead, it’s too early to expect actual confirmation of this at time of writing!

In Paris, Nuit Dèmonia always hosts a fetish Halloween event. This year’s is tagged Inferno — Fetish Horror Party, and takes place on Saturday October 28 at a spooky-looking waterside venue called Les Pavillons des Étangs (Pavilions of the Ponds). But there’s more! This year’s party is the closing event in a three-day programme (Oct 26-28) ambitiously entitled Paris Fetish Week. Supporting events include a fetish market, film screenings and ‘partner evenings’ on the two days before the actual party.

In Switzerland, Zurich’s renowned hosts of pervery, Utopia Fetish Deluxe, hold their annual Halloween Ball at the Floor Club in the city’s Kloten district on Saturday November 4. The venue provides multiple play spaces and equipment, encouraging the organisers to promise “you are the show”. We hope you won’t disappoint them.

USA: FORT LAUDERDALE, LAS VEGAS, NEW ORLEANS, NEW YORK

Promo image, above left, for Fetish Factory’s Halloween Fetish Ball in Wilton Manors on Fri Oct 27. Above right: Audience enthusiasm at Las Vegas Sin City Halloween Ball, which returns on Sat Oct 28 this year

Florida’s mega pervy partying brand Fetish Factory hosts one of the United States’ highest profile fetish Halloween events, each year drawing more than 2,000 people who all happily conform to the fetish dresscode. Its 2023 Halloween Fetish Ball takes place on Friday October 27 at its regular Epic Ballroom venue in Wilton Manors, up the road from FF’s Fort Lauderdale HQ. Entertainment laid on for the evening includes Jezebelle Red, Carrie Cat of 9Tails, Val Vampyre, Sharzayn, Christa Knox, Firefly, Lyra Angels and Matt Bennett.

Meanwhile in Las Vegas, another very popular US Halloween event — previously known as the Fetish & Fantasy Halloween Ball — recently rebranded as Sin City Halloween Ball (not to be confused with Vancouver’s Sin City fetish parties). But don’t worry: although the title has ditched that troublesome ‘fetish’ word, inside, it will be very much business as usual on Saturday October 28. Performers announced this year include Perish and Friends, Dani Divine, Fire-N-Ice, Pyrrha Sutra, Flesh & Fire, Hollywood Clowns, GrindCore and Masuimi Max.

Promo image for this year’s Endless Night Vampire Ball (Temple of the Dark Goddess) in New Orleans’ House of Blues on Sat Oct 28. This legendary gathering also features supporting events across the three days Oct 27-29

Of course Halloween in the US would not be Halloween without the original Endless Night Vampire Ball in New Orleans. Held at the famous House of Blues, it’s not strictly a fetish event, but is sufficiently ‘fetish adjacent’ to appeal to a lot of folk who identify as kinksters. And as devotees will know, as well as the headline Ball on Saturday October 28 (this year tagged Temple of the Dark Goddess), host Father Sebastiaan oversees a supporting programme that includes a Bazaar (Fri-Sat 27-28); Salon Noir (Fri 27); plus High Tea & Tarot, Convivium Banquet and Babylon VIV Salon (all Sun 29).

In New York, SMack! and Stimulate co-host our final US event, the Stimulate Annual Halloween Ball, on Friday October 27 at Eris Evolution in Brooklyn. There’ll be live music from Ayria and others; fetish performances by Lydia Wilts, Lola Strange, Eva ‘She Demon’ Tusquets and more; and DJs including Johanna Constantine and, of course, Xris SMack! himself.

CANADA & AUSTRALIA: VANCOUVER, MONTREAL, PERTH

Hellbound: guests queue to enter Gates of Hell, Cirque de Boudoir’s 2022 Halloween party. This year’s party, called Hellscape Halloween, takes place on Oct 28, preceded by the 7 Devils Cabaret Night on Oct 27

One Canadian event we’d normally recommend at Halloween time — the Sin City Fetish Halloween Ball at the Waldorf, Vancouver on Saturday October 28 (no connection to the Las Vegas event) — has already sold out of all its advance tickets. The hosts say additional tickets “may show up” due to legitimate returns and suggest anyone hoping for that bit of good luck should check back regularly at the event website.

On the opposite coast of Canada, Cirque de Boudoir can offer you two nights of Halloween entertainment, Montreal-style: 7 Devils Cabaret on Friday October 27 at Cabaret Lion d’Or, and Hellscape Halloween at Théâtre Paradox on Saturday October 28. The latter is CDB’s biggest event of the year, draws “the most kinky crowd in Montreal” and will feature performances by Natasha Nebula & Holy Scar, The Fire Furiads, The Hellbound Harlots, Sequra, Daskao & the Replikants, Mania Knox and more.

To complete this round-up, we have one event to mention in Australia. It’s not in Sydney as you might expect, but in Perth, the coastal city capital of Western Australia. On Friday October 27, Perth’s Voodoo Lounge will host its 19^th Annual Halloween Fetish Ball, themed around Virtual Vixens in the Flesh and featuring appearances by well-known online mistresses and fetish/fashion stage shows among other attractions.

LIBIDEX HALLOWEEN SAMPLE SALE IN LONDON

Don’t forget, if you’re in or near London, Libidex HQ in Islington is holding its Halloween Sample Sale on Saturday and Sunday Oct 21 and 22, with latex clothing and accessories at 50-80 percent off. Saturday’s ticketed event is now sold out, but Sunday’s walk-in event (from noon to 6pm) is open to everyone — no ticket required. Expect one-off pieces, prototypes, sample products and ex-display items at bargain prices!