Why venues love kinksters

Venues and event spaces tend to always be surprised when they host their first kink events for two reasons. The first is the general behavior of the attendees and the second is the response from their regulars.

In previous blog entries, we talk a lot about the behavior of people in the BDSM community. Respect, consent, and civic responsibility are high on the list of ethical and moral codes of behavior, but it really comes into focus when being in public. Yes, within every community there will be a few bad apples, but the kink community is one that polices itself. We will call out bad behavior and address it directly so that it does not reflect poorly on the rest of us. As such, bars and clubs tend to be clean, the bouncer has very little to do, and even barbacks pick up fewer abandoned glasses. Tips tend to also be higher on average per-customer.

Often, vanilla people expect the submissives to be respectful in behavior and speech, but the dominants and switches also tend to be patient and respectful. After events, we've had owners and managers tell us how surprised they were at how many "please" and "thank you" statements they heard in conversation with their staff. It's not uncommon for staff to argue with management to try to get on a schedule for a kink event purely because it tends to be more profitable with better behaved customers.

The second part is the regulars. Many events in clubs and bars are open to the general public, and many of those venues have a small group of regulars. These tend to be the bread and butter of any establishment, and the owners can't risk alienating them. Unlike a larger venue that is event-based, these smaller spaces depend on these regular customers to keep the lights on. Granted, if the venue is open to hosting a kink event, they should already be familiar with the sensibilities of their regulars, but there's still no guarantee.

In two previous venues, Fetish After Dark was met with a moderate amount of suspicion by the regulars. This was to be expected, and we made the effort to make them feel welcome. In both spaces, within a year, many of the regulars were our most devoted fans. Some would bring friends or dates to come and enjoy themselves while the show went on, and we were pleasantly surprised when many told us that the part they missed the most about those venues were our shows. These were not people who were kinky, and didn't participate at all, but they liked the colorful community and the behavior of our people.

Adding something inherently erotic, like a kink show, to a venue is absolutely a risk. However, if the event is connected to the BDSM community, many venue owners and managers discover it's a risk that's well worth the returns.