After a covid enforced pause we finally got to see it. The legendary (and this year celebrating its 25th anniversary) Berlin erotic festival VENUS is back. And we couldn’t miss it, because we’ve been going for years. And we still love it:)
This year, VENUS also took place over four days – Thursday to Sunday (21 October – 23 October 2022) and again at the Berlin Messe aka exhibition grounds.
Porn actress autograph sessions
It was probably clear to everyone that the much sought after booths with individual actresses could not be missed – they had their space in the main hall with the livecam girls, but in the back wing where the main stage with the big acts was.
All in all, those places, apart from the stands of individual actresses (mostly under some brand BongaCams, StripCHat, My Dirty Hobby… less so this year as selfmadewomans going it alone), were about 30. And so those were the main booty for hundreds of people interested in signing their favourite actresses. And not only signatures, but StifflerMum had used panties for 10 euros each.
They were giving away their signatures and smiles: Lia Leone, Tith Kitten, Mara Lenoir, Tamy Love, Liz Tyrious, Emma Secret TBA, Sexy Susi, Jenny Stella, Daynia, Xisca and more.
Headliners:
- Micaela Schäfer
- Fiona Fuchs
- Josy Black
- Hanna Secret
Compared to last year, there were a lot of contrived and “puffed up” performers – until my entourage and I started playing the game of real or fake. And we had (even though there was no way to verify it, even though we could have talked them into telling us themselves) a really hard time finding what we thought were natural breasts.
I could believe it was maybe 3 girls – typically young girls who looked exactly like schoolgirls or the girl next door = also niche pornography that pulls attention. One gorgeous curly girl knew how to get the photographers attention, that’s why she’s captured so many times in the gallery:) And also because I just liked how natural she was and knew very well how to move:)
Among others were the shows: Pussykat, Naomi Cole, Lola Taylor, Helena Vallentine, Kitty Sixx, Szilvia, Amy Cameron, Sophie Doll, Emily Ross AMy Cameron, Kitty Sixxl, Micaela Shafer and more.
Kinky VENUS ala fetish fantasy
Live tying was already a classic that should surprise no one. Programmatically (as with all of VENUS this year), I couldn’t distinguish specific acts, but in the end
result? It didn’t really matter.
It alternated between spankings with kitchen utensils (with explanations that you don’t need something echt special to punish your counterpart), mass spanking of 7 submissive models from KitKat club (actor, who I meet at all ero/fetish events in Prague and Berlin, but I haven’t tracked down who it was yet), to the classic yet wonderfully sensual shibari tying and hanging of a poor but fascinated redheaded girl.
It was obvious that the rigger in question loved the insidious torment of the girl in front of her, so she enjoyed every tightening, turning on the sling for all around the stage to see… She just loved her job and was probably in topspace – which the model was the opposite in her subspace:)
That enthusiasm carried over to the spectators themselves – who surprised me this year that there were really few of them on Friday (typically a warm-up day, but they’re always there by after-work time). You can see in the photos from the afternoon time here in the gallery that there weren’t many people there.
Last years it was already pretty full at any given time. And on Saturday? I probably shouldn’t even be talking about that, it’s still thundering in my head – the volume of the audio production on site, with the various DJs at the booths probably outdoing each other in terms of the electric pace of the music and its volume. And the people were overwhelming, so I’m going to repeat myself, if you’re a first time VENUS attendee, I recommend at least one of the weekdays.
And for kukanda and quickly one weekend one – the atmosphere is again more intense in the number of people and on the weekend always gathered costume enthusiasts… whether classic fetish/sexy, but also latex horses, dogs, … But this time no one “gave” to horses – somehow this year they did not give birth. But there were lots of cats and dogs.
Fashion Fetish – interesting idea, maybe only this particular rigger but it doesn’t matter). He used uncharacteristically glittery (gold, silver, …) ropes and long strings with pearls to tie up young girls (it always fascinates me how someone can so quickly come to the self-understanding that bdsm/nudity in public is what they love and need).
The whole thing was beautifully shiny, actually subtle and could be worn over some kind of top, so not necessarily on the naked body. Upon closer inspection, the whole outfit was reinforced with black weak ropes, so it held its shape and added to the contrast of the whole outfit. A very nice concept – one he was showing both at his booth and in his performance on the runway.
The Domina and her slave with the cart were not missing – it’s a recurring theme every year that probably one of the Berlin dominas will bring their slave and torment the fest on the spot. The fact that he is locked in a chastity belt and has his back whipped is the least of it. There are more unpleasant things happening to him there – but it’s likely to be his real one, what he loves and what he himself needs.
Of course, the Mistress won’t be walking around the fairgrounds on foot, so he’ll take her there in a rickshaw. And if he’s slow enough, or can’t get through the crowds (and that he really tried to get through as best he could), he’ll get even more whiplash. Or just like that, there might not have been an obvious reason for it to us onlookers. They had their main station right at the Kinky VENUS hall, in a somewhat forgotten (probably on purpose) side bar that you couldn’t see much into.
Latex outfits on the second floor (which gets more interesting every year – it wasn’t used at all before = or what’s the interest in bdsm/fetish/kinky) are one of my favourite booths every year – I’ve been on the lookout for a particular burgundy coloured tight dress here for a couple of years now, but again the timing wasn’t right for it.
But right next door was a booth, according to the gentlemen behind the table a Japanese one, with atypical gags from Silencilicone.
Their sales pitch was: a product that makes you speechless.
And these definitely had something going for them – not only was it a spherical gag made of silicone for biting (and had a suitable cut-out for that), but it also had a large protrusion inside. From what we talked to the exhibitor, it eliminates the possibility of spitting it out/shifting it (with the looser tightening of the band at the nape of the neck, it went with the classic bits that you “proceded” it through your teeth as if out) and reduces drooling as well. Which is a deal breaker for many people as far as the visual slave is concerned. Definitely an interesting piece that we will certainly test.
Performing here were, in order, Lady Susan, Rija Mae, Doina Charlize, Fred Kyrel, Lady Nadine Bauer, Josy Black, Fiona Fuchs, Paulita Pappel and Maria Mia.
Toy-mania
Let’s face it – it was weaker this year. They devoted the left hall from the entrance to toys, which used to be fully passable because for years the main stage with acts was behind us = so everyone could and actually had to walk back and forth. But this time they did it as a closed wing and honestly it was pretty sad.
The noticeably few people made it even more apparent that there weren’t that many booths even in the space itself – they were airy but noticeably far apart, so you felt quite out of place. But even with the participation of individual brands and vendors,
it was worse overall.
There was a nice and big EIS.de booth in the main hall, but otherwise everything product (and not kinky) was concentrated in this left block. Of the more well-known brands, only German (unexpected = it would be a shame not to be here) Fun Factory, Mystim and Svakom were there.
The latter mentioned had nothing new here in my opinion, just the classic range of electrosex pieces in their understated designs, realistic vaginas (Oh PUSH ME, OPUS E and a realistic cast of festival star Mikael) and a substantial part of their candle and accessory range for foreplay and “lascivious” parties. So there was definitely no shortage of nipple stickers in x variations.
But overall, nothing that would catch your eye. They also gave up (I don’t blame them, the economics must have been insane) on the prize draw where they gave away some toys or trinkets every year (I remember winning a vibrator = and their price tags are not exactly the smallest).
At least they had a big box of Mystery Boxes, and I recommended those to friends on the site too – the girl’s/boy’s version, it always contained items for about 65 EUR, but they were selling it for 25 EUR. Margin-wise they were fine with it, and we were also happy with the little things just around candles, ticklers, …)
Fun Factory pleasantly surprised me this year – we know the toys intimately, see our reviews, but they had a small production section on site where you could make your own dildo – a smaller version of the Cupid, which has a sort of suction cup at the bottom of the base. Slightly curved piece for beginners like a stitched one. The condition was that you had to buy something for at least 100 EUR, but you could pour it into a steel mould on the spot and then take it home. 🙂 Very nice revival of an otherwise rather pidi-mini stand.
Plus, for the first time I saw an upgraded version of the Bootie Fem anal pin (the diminutive has a reason – see photos) – apparently a female version of the very popular pin – in dark pink and black.
Svakom has a bigger booth every year, this one was in the main live room – there was a choice of classic anal pins and vibrators – typically already smart with a phone connection, as well as larger artificial vaginas. Apparently, it invests a lot in these and we already know that it does it well – we have the Svakom Sam Neo with vacuum and vibration in the editorial office to test and it is a piece of cake.
The rest of the space and the stands themselves were occupied by sellers of either erotic lingerie – Baci, … (like Spitzenjunge, which I will have to stop by next time to expand my lingerie repertoire for a possible afterparty), or sex toys of purely Asian provenance.
I’ve never seen so many toy stalls with purely Asian vendors, but they weren’t selling any cheap pieces, but instead branded typically AI artificial fucking dolls (mostly White IT – AI Humanoid from Singapour), very sophisticated and electrified vibrators that were overcharging, … If the hall was filled with full stands, I wouldn’t have been impressed by the number of them and would have just passed it by, but in my opinion half of the vendors were just with these private, but (in the EU, or at least to me – after 10 years in the “industry”) unknown brands.
From toys I have to mention Angel Toys – and yes, it’s a Czech brand that we’ve mentioned in reports. But in the Prague ones, they were at VENUS for the first time in my opinion. The Czech language at the Kinky Hall surprised them, but pleasantly. 🙂 They were right on the second floor, so with a good view of the stage itself with the bindings. From their offer I have to highlight the beautiful leather masks (perfect for a party – maybe for MILK & HONEY or their dance LIBERTINAGE?) and the great shift in the processing of collars and their edges.
Beautiful work, not so chunky and harsh anymore, instead there is a lot of understated grace to be seen, we have picked up a few pieces from them that we will get – or maybe years down the line we will arrange a review and you will see them in our BDSM and Bondage test section.
In the Kinky scene, I was also interested in Naturally Naughty ginger spray – for blood circulation to erogenous zones – nipples, clitoris, … we just had a taste (and a couple of shots of moonshine straight up), but it was only at home that I found out what a blast it is. After that experience, all lubricating hot gels can go slide. So you can look forward to the review. :))
For completeness, I’ll add that there were two “rakes” compared to earlier years – it’s my internal name because that’s how it strikes me. While they are new toys, they are typically of an older date and are scattered on individual tables like a marketplace. The price is sometimes very nice, but the quality matches it, or the toy is of good quality, but at today’s inappropriate price tags – e.g. the now discontinued and about 5 year old Womanizer P40? at 100 EUR they didn’t mean it.
There are already better and cheaper pieces on the market – see our Womanizer reviews. So somewhere a hit, somewhere a miss – but definitely if you choose, you will buy for both beginners and more experienced. They always have hundreds of these pieces. And their luminous penis at the checkout didn’t let us down again:) In fact, it’s the same vendor every year – this time it was in the bar area intermediate to the main hall and also just in the toy hall.
In the main hall of EIS there was no lack of classic Satisfyers (has the paradigm changed in a couple of years that just Satifyer is now the standard?) in all sizes, colors, … but all in all they had maybe 30-40 pieces, but actually it was the biggest exhibitor. Pretty sad – at least this year there were no fantasy/animal dildos by kinky (or modernly creative) handmade authors?
Too bad, we love those flicks and this year the toy display was pretty sterile except for the “dildo factory”. The interest of shops and brands might have been influenced (for those who know the specifics of offline fairs) by the fact that moving the back room with live strippers elsewhere reliably kills the product fair itself. Too bad, maybe next time they’ll improve it and put another hall behind this expo.
Livechats as an overwhelming trend
If any trend has proven to be a growing one, it’s live-chats. It was already clearly visible at the last VENUS in 2019, but covid has made the process even faster with this. You wouldn’t find many booths here where there wasn’t a porn girl dancing and stripping… in front of a camera on, connected to one of the livechat/webcam porn services.
So the girl was online, getting tips (small money) from her watchers, assignments, occasionally texting them, but most importantly… she was still dildoing herself in front of you, flicking her clit with her fingers, … so she just moved her home-office workplace to a big hall in the middle of Germany. 🙂 It was up to the individual girls if they could handle the attention of the people “behind the camera” (typically from the other side of the world), and those physically behind the camera on the show floor itself:)
Anyway, the girls took turns at their stations, but there was one record holder, the very first in line, who literally “rode” the dildo maybe all Friday and was still in the same place on Saturday. We can’t imagine the fatigue (not just her arms), because if she was dedicated to anything, it was driving herself through various dildos, both flexible silicone and rigid glass (which still don’t bore and fascinate us to look at).
The main performance hall was definitely dominated by Silvia Dellai and her little sister Eveline – to the point where my entourage and I wondered for a while if it was just her stage. It wasn’t that often (not that we could complain with her) that she performed. The style of this year’s VENUS that I wrote about above with Kinky was on full display here – the packed schedule (and thus the pressure to time everything around it) allowed for an almost continuous flow of one show after another on each stage.
On the main one, there were only gaps of maybe 3 minutes (always the central couch came to be polished and cleaned by 1 particular young man = imagine just walking around all day and cleaning the couch after porn actresses in front of hundreds of people = interesting job) and someone else would come on right away. And if not right away, then after handing out dozens of packages and toys from the central presenter duo. As impoverished as the toy fair was in the other room, here for the first time the toys were almost raining down from the sky.
Visitor’s insert
It’s almost my tradition that I look forward to VENUS not because of, say, the official program and pro participants, but because of the visitors. This is also why I prefer the weekend days of the festival to the regular weekday ones. Because it’s on the weekend that the most pampered ones come (in my opinion from all over Germany, maybe even from abroad depending on the language) – in latex, leather, pampered from head to toe.
Btw, I wouldn’t believe that you can combine a latex catsuit with sneakers and a skateboarding cap – and yet my jaw dropped at the sight of that guy.
And I have to admit, they did well this year too – for obvious reasons of decency, I don’t have any photos or videos of them here (although I always try to remember them for inspiration for next year’s outfit). But if you’d like to put as another reason in your list of pros and cons: to see the fantastically colourful outfits of others, by all means do so – and in the PRO column, of course.
It’s not just the diversity of the costumes themselves, but the genders or orientations are also manifested – a 2.3m tall transsexual in heels and a latex mane, sissy men on leashes, all in X variations and permutations.
Editor’s review
We’ll gradually expand this section with contributions from others who were there with us (mostly for the first time at the Berlin festival, but with the opportunity to compare it to the Prague one).
Misha – tester
I am thrilled, it met my expectations.
Silvia Dellai as always irresistible and very professional on stage.
The sector with live chat cameras directly at the show was something completely new for me and I see it as a confirmation that this “category” of the erotic industry represents a great future.
The booths with porn actresses, which I thought I would just pass in a hurry, ended up captivating me for quite a long time. Very relaxed, very spontaneous, very decadent, definitely something to watch.
For me personally the nicest sector – BDSM and Kinky.
As in all sectors, this one had its own stage with performances most interesting for me. The performance with Shibari was the strongest for me personally.
As for exhibitors, the one that stuck in my mind the most was the Czech company Angel Toys (mentioned in the report above) with all sorts of reprimands, collars, harnesses, all made from quality leather and made to order. I will definitely keep my eye on this company. 🙂
If I had anything to criticize, it would probably just be the lack of gift bags with gifts that were handed out at the entrance, on the final day of the festival only the bags were handed out, but no gifts.
Petr – editor-in-chief
But for me: I can also compare the individual VENUS since 2015 and the Prague ones since 2010. This year’s VENUS was very contradictory – on the one hand, a pretty weak product part, which was completely overwhelmed by the live part – actually the main hall with porn actresses, which this year was pumped up and packed with nice strips, albeit with screaming music at times.
But thanks to many of the girls, it didn’t really matter, because you weren’t bored, you just glided between the various stages (here they weren’t even booths, but giant areas typically with dance poles, couches, …) and you’d get by. Fetish and BDSM lovers also found their safe and quiet space in a separate hall, which this year was heavily occupied by booths and performances, but in 2019 I found it more filled with people.
And I forgot specifics, this year’s edition of VENUS was held in parallel (in the same complex, but separate) with manga and cosplay fans, so occasionally attendees spilled back and forth, which was also a refreshing element, but probably unintentional on the part of the organizers:)
Still, I think everyone should experience VENUS at least once, opening your eyes to the possibilities, gear and sexuality of others, … always comes in handy. And the fact that it’s more of a professional obligation for us to come here to write about it doesn’t matter at all:) Even after all these years, we’ll still find something entertaining.
But it would be refreshing to experience the event sometimes just as an observer who doesn’t have to report everything to the world (we filled TW and Instagram with photos and videos during the event) and take notes:)
Maybe next year we’ll leave it up to someone from the editorial team to come along. So we’ll see you on the ground again next year!🙂 Greetings Lascivious newsletter!
