Berlin's Fetish Festival
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Mayor Klaus Wowereit accused his opponents of being “small-minded.” Welcoming the crowds at the Folsom Europe festival in Berlin this weekend for the second time, Mr Wowereit said in a written message: “We are proud that people of varied origins and predilections feel at home in our city and celebrate together. The first weekend in September will be marked by pure joie de vivre … The international leather and fetish scene is meeting for the second time in Berlin … Welcome to Berlin.” The festival is Germany’s attempt to copy San Francisco’s sadomasochism fair.
Berlin’s mayor defies opposition to welcome fetish festival
“No question about it, it is a glitzy scene but that is also part of Berlin,” Wowereit told Bild newspaper. “And as long as they do not do anything illegal, I expect people to be tolerant.
Berlin mayor criticised for welcoming S&M festival
The thought of thousands of gay leathermen, slaves, master, and other fetish enthusiasts has whipped up a storm of anger among the conservative opposition Christian Democrats, and even some members Wowereit’s own Social Democrat party.
Gay Berlin Mayor Under Attack Over Fetishes
Should London (Europe’s real creative capital) worry about losing its status? Not really. One of Europe’s most cherished stereotypes of the German people is that they manage to combine an appetite for sexual deviancy with a grim seriousness in the pursuit of such pleasures. Few things can be less enticing than the prospect of middle-aged PVC-wrapped Germans, pasty Poles and pudgy Brits in chains and leathers parading their fetishes under the approving eye of Berlin’s town council.
