View of a Leather Vendor Bender at the 2007 Toronto Fetish fair (click to see it larger) photo by Michael F. Paré, .
Sunday August 19, 2007 by Michael F. Paré. I had a rather busy weekend. On Saturday evening dropped in to chat-up Lyn MacNeil, co-owner and sometimes bartender of Beaver Cafe, 1192 Queen Street West before heading over to the Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West to take in the Stinkmitt event in the Underground Lounge at midnight (www.myspace.com/stinkmitt ) in the Queer West Village.
Sunday at noon cycle downtown to my first, Toronto Fetish Fair ( actually fourth annual) on Church St., where Toronto's old gay ghetto is located, after reading about it in Xtra Toronto's gay and lesbian newspaper.
Last year the local Church-Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area (CWVBIA), alleged the crowd size of third annual Toronto Fetish Fair at more than 15,000 people over the course of the 10-hour street closure.
The BIA hyped the fact that The Crowd is, second only to the city's annual Pride celebration.
"It's not the size of a fair that counts, it's what you do with it," said David Kloss, Executive Producer of the fair. "Unlike gated events where organizers can count tickets, gauging attendance on the open street is not a precise science. But spot checks of the fair district throughout the day, with turnover of the crowd as the hours passed, it's clear that the crowd exceeded 15,000 people, perhaps as many as 20,000."
In 2006 Three blocks of Church Street were closed for the event, from Alexander Street in the south to Dundonald Street in the north. Streets closed to traffic at 8am for set-up of the fair that ran from Noon to 10 pm.
This year the fair stretched the same length, about 4 city blocks with about 15 booths tops.
Making it appear larger than it actually was. At 3 pm I would roughly guess the crowd at less than 3,000, nowhere near 20,000 that allegedly showed up last year.
There appears to be a lot of infighting among Toronto's leather community. Many refused to attend Leather Ball XIII on Saturday August 18, 2007 at the Opera House, 735 Queen St. E., because people that attend the ball are just leather possers and don't wear leather as a lifestyle. Tsk Tsk, those naughty Leather Queens, how dare they!
Sign with instructions for Darkest Fantasies Confessional use (click to see it larger) photo by Michael F. Paré.
At this year fair, one of the more enterprising booths was staged by AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT Toronto).
It had "Enza "Supermodel" Anderson as dominatrix. The idea was to confess your darkest fantasies in the confessional and do your penance by writing out your sin in chalk on the road in front of the booth. "If two or more people took part and didn't want to write their sins out for all to see. They could give a few coins, as a donation to Act Toronto, if the wished" said Rui Pires, AIDS Committee of Toronto, Gay Men's Community Education Coordinator. No one refused.
View Ena "Supermodel" in the background dressed to the nines in red top and short black leather skirt with her long sexy legs she looked very stylish. (click to see it larger) photo by Michael F. Paré.
It was nice to cycle back to more quiet and sedate Queer West Village, well not so sedate at night.
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