Belgium Leather Pride is an outstanding success once again.

The annual leather fest, now in its sixth year, took place last weekend and LeatherWest was there along with a loyal bunch of troopers representing the south west region.

Situated in re-purposed hangers along Antwerp’s dockside, Darklands is the world’s only indoor gay fetish festival and lies at the heart of the six day pride. Workshops, fetish market, shows, porn actors, DJs and performers all combine to make a fantastic celebration of male leather fetish.

LeatherWest was proud and honoured to be invited to exhibit at the festival. Being among such well know names in the fetish world such as Mister B, The Dogs Bollox (“We like it WRUFF!”), Boxer along with photographers and artists such as Taco Smit and René Zuiderveld, was an amazing experience.

Our stand certainly proved to be popular with guys from all across Europe paying us a visit, wanting to know more about what we do.

It surprised us to learn just how far LeatherWest’s name has spread across the continent. Many guys were telling us they admired what has been achieved in the west of the UK and how others are now looking to follow a similar model. At one point we were talking to leather guys from as far away as Croatia, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan - at the same time!

However, it was the news of UK Leather Pride 2015 that was main topic of conversation. The excitement caused by the announcement that the UK will finally have a dedicated leather pride was matched by the buzz of guys making plans to attend. The Irish delegation have since booked several rooms at the host hotel.

The LeatherWest team certainly will be drawing inspiration from Belgium Leather Pride for the November event and we grilled organiser Jeroen Van Lievenoogen, who spends over three months working on the event, for information and tips for running a fantastic event.

One constant theme that kept cropping up in conversation, was the importance of community and mutual support for organisations in the fetish world. Over the past year we have seen several bars and events close, including the Europe’s oldest gay leather bar, The Argos in Amsterdam.

So it was music to our ears to hear Wim Bos, founder of Mister B, spoke at the Official Leather Pride Opening Reception about the need to invest in supporting newcomers to the fetish scene and to ensure that the traditions of the leather community are passed on and preserved.

The LeatherWest stand was never short of visitors and we were delighted to get the change to meet up with so many old friends and make plenty of new ones. We were also visited by many of the title holders who were attending the event, and one very sexy Mister B Antwerp store manager who took a liking to our “Tommy” beermats.

One of the highlights of the weekend for many guys is the BLUF drinks reception and it’s no secret that a shot of bourbon gets the party started (it certainly did last year in Antwerp and seems to have started a tradition). However, have you seen such a large bottle before?! Three litres of “BLUF juice”, resulting in 120 shots for the attending BLUF members - well you can do the maths and guess the result! Needless to say a good time was had by all - and then some!

For a second year running, members of BLUF Bristol helped to host the event with Andy from BLUF Manchester running a production line of filling shot glasses - thanks Andy we wouldn’t have been on time without you! - and the newly launched BLUF Paris Team helping to distribute the “BLUF juice” to the gathered attendees.

And if all these leathermen weren’t enough to get us excited, LeatherWest was up for a European Leather X Award in the Fetish Organisation category. The X Awards “aim to put people, organizations and enterprises in the spotlight, who made a valuable contribution to our fetish community over the past year.” While we might not have walked away with a trophy, we were honoured by the nomination.

With so many guys from so many countries across a whole continent coming together to unite under the leather flag, the event had a true spirit of brotherhood. The respect and support for one another within our community was very clear to see and at a time when more tribes of leather are emerging, it’s going to be this cohesion between us that is going to sustain our future.

Thank you to all that contributed to a fantastic weekend and we look forward to returning in 2016, as LeatherWest has already been invited back! Please feel free to add a comment below if you were there and tell us about your experiences. The LeatherWest team included: Cardiff Biker Chris, Marcos West, Richard Leather, Bristol Uniform Mark, Phil S’Berg, Black Arrow Tim and Ralf Lther Kerl. Our sincere thanks to all of you for volunteering so many hours of your time.

Listen to LeatherWest’s Tim speaking to some of those that stopped by our stand: