It’s always a longggg drive on a Thursday from Holland’s West coast to deep into South Germany. But it’s one I like to do.
I’ve got a trunk full of ropes, I’ve got my sunglasses on… Hit it!
Going to BoundCon is one of the highlights of the year for me. Preparations are always super busy and stressful, but once the Citroën is loaded and fired up and the German highway dooms up in the distance, it’s all about “YEAH ! On my way”.
BoundCon starts on Friday of course, but Thursday evening it’s already possible to build the booth and meet others that are also already working preparations. It’s such a pleasure to meet all those people again, starting with reporting in to Andrea at the Messebüro. She’s a sweetie :-)
Friday is a relatively relaxed start, because BoundCon starts at 15:00 and a lot of pre-work on the booth is already done. Planning, right? ;-)
And even then it’s still kind of stressing… Did I bring enough rope? Too much? Is everything in place? Are people attracted into the booth to feeltouchtry the ropes? I always try to lure the people in with a bowl of candy on the table with the ropes :-) And this time I also had the keyhangers again and a new little gimmick; earrings shaped like a coil of bondage rope :-)
This year I was located in a totally different place in the hall than where I normally am, so I felt I had to guide people to find me (as if they wouldn’t). I made some A5-flyers with my logo reading FindMe instead of… well, BindMe, and a little map on the back. Hanging them near the entrance for people to tear off and take should do the job.
Once BoundCon is “open” people shuffle in, start making their first round through the immense hall, filled with all kinds of different booths. I saw a lot of familiar faces. People who understand that you can never have enough rope. Coming by every year, either just saying they love the ropes and had sooo much fun with it, or getting more and/or new ones. Of course that feels good for me. People having so much fun (and/or lust or whatever) with my ropes. That’s what it’s all about!
As for collegue vendors; a lot of the usual suspects were there. This year I was next to Masters in Steel. Great neighbors, very nice people and fantastic craftsmen. And I had the sweetest people of Gegenlicht Manufaktur opposite of me :-)
Of course Mathias Grimme of Schlagzeilen.com und seine liebe Damen were also there. BoundCon wouldn’t be the same without them.
Pedro of ByKonijnArt, MaestroBD and the whole Italian crew, Fred Kyrel, Swedish model Pling, Remco Fotoro of too many websites and MetalBondage.com. Boris and his girl from St Petersburg, Russia. Too many to mention!
Now Friday usually starts slow… but this time people were in a line outside waiting to get in. Wut!?
Friday evening shows were great on the main stage. I can’t say much about the small bondage stage across the hall, because that was really too far away from my stand…unfortunately. Lots of great stuff going on there generally.
So after a good Friday I closed the booth at midnight and went for a beer in the hotel and sleptsleptslept :-) Saturday is TOP day, so I had to be fit, fresh and fruity :-)
It’s so much fun to see everyone from non-interested (yes there are people that are NOT into rope tsssk) to absolute beginner to guru, all in one place.
Saturday is that day that everyone comes into BoundCon. Some SUPER busy moments. Some time out…
To do the explaining, the informing, the trading, the negotiating, the rope-nerding. It’s what I like about being at BoundCon. But of course there is also soooo much eye candy passing the booth. The most gorgeous models, the prettiest girls with and without rope.
So trade was great on Saturday. And I saw part of a great show by Maestro BD and his team on the main stage. As I tweeted; Grande Drama Italianio in extrema in opera style ! WOW.
And by the time it was closing time it felt like 1000s of people passed my booth. I had to hurry to change clothes for the Sub Rosa Dictum Party in the KesselHaus. Now I am not a real fetishist regarding clothing, so I wore a smart looking mainstream outfit and added a gasmask ;-)
At the party I met Bob (Ropemarks) and DutchDame (talk about hot pretty girls !! Holy Moly!) who were going to do a show with one of (at least) Europe’s kinkiest and hottest women, Anna Rose. We went backstage and met Uwe and Anna and a bunch of other people. After their friggin’ hot wicked weird fun kinky show on main stage we met up with some other people, like Andrea Ropes from Italia and saw some small bondage shows. Drank A LOT… and then it was time for me to go… because BoundCon day 3 starts friggin’ early at 11. But THAT was a party! :-D
It was the first time for me to go all 3 days. Before I always drove back on Sunday, kids home, nice and quiet on the freeway, no trucks. But this year was a bank holiday weekend, so… Sunday stayed. And that was a good choice ! People are getting more and more and more into rope and they know where to get the good stuff :-)
So this was a good one. Business-wise, fun-wise and rope-wise.
After clearing out the booth in record time it was time to say goodbyes to all the good people I met, other vendors, friends.
And back to the hotel. Had a quiet drink and a bath hmmmmmmmmmm. And a good sleep.
Monday it was time to head home… and the longggg drive back. But it was shorter. Somehow the distance over the weekend had shrunk. Back in a jiff. Seeya next year BoundCon; FO SURE ! 20 -22 May 2016
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