Fetish Festival (Feti-Fes) was held in Tokyo on Sunday January 25th at an inconspicuous venue near Harajuku.
There were 96 booths, including cosplayers, idols, bondage artists, and more, spread out over six seriously packed floors, plus a basement showing the “Underground Fetish Film Festival” screenings.
Feti-Fes was first held in January 2013, since then it has been held eight times around Japan. This festival — the fifth in Tokyo — was the biggest so far and there seemed to be hundreds of visitors by our estimate.
Due to legal reasons, there was no nudity allowed in the venue, nor could you touch the performers. However, all this really meant was that most of the idols were effectively naked, with their nipples covered by tape and wearing the skimpiest of swimsuits. Some opted for corset-style costumes, with appropriately explosive bust results.
All visitors were ID’d for their age upon entry. They even made you sign an agreement saying you wouldn’t engage in sexual activities for certain demonstrations. I guess they are scared of police shutting the place down. The crackdowns have been severe recently, with a string of sex clubs and other venues being hit by raids, including major bondage clubs.
Most booths had an additional charge on top of the ¥3,000 entry ticket for taking pictures, hence the scarcity of ours here. Likewise most performances and screenings cost extra.
The lovely ladies of Sugar White. You could pay to get kicked by them.
We challenge anyone to find a single location in Japan that had more fetishes represented under one roof. We tried to keep track but lost count in the end: pocchari chubby idols, omorashi (seeing a girl wet herself), panchir (you can pay to get a photo of a girl up her skirt), wet t-shirt bust (where you could pay to shoot a water pistol at a girl in a white t-shirt), zentai all-body suits, vacuum pack fetish, rope and whip bondage, kick idols (getting a Thai kick from a cute girl), hairy armpit girls, manaita (flat-chested) idols, schoolgirl and nurse cosplay, funoshi cosplay, and so much more…
The shibari demo booth was very popular.
Likely the most obviously mainstream was a booth for nonsummerjack, where the gyaru model non sat on a bed showing off her jaw-dropping body in a bikini that left almost nothing to the imagination. Seriously, her body had to be seen to be believed, it was that good.
Maybe the prize for most esoteric goes to the “twintail whip” booth. As we know, twin tails (pigtails) are a fetish in Japan. Here you could pay to have a young lady with twin tails “whip” you in the face with each of her bunches. To each his own.
Demonstrating the catholicism and inclusive nature of the Japanese erotic world, there were lots of otoko no ko and other transsexual cosplayers. Although the visitors were mostly male, it wasn’t all just otaku and geeks. There were gays and lesbians, couples and girls, and lots of cosplay (people used the toilets to change), including people wearing some really unusual masks, and cross-dressers.
There were also booths for adult retailers, extreme fetish porn, bondage and shibari clubs, and other fetish bars. Most people were selling their merchandise or products, either as individual artists or as idol units with staff.
At a steam punk gear booth, Black Mamba posed for us in his costume.
Not all exhibitors were overtly erotic either. There was lot of gothic subculture too. There was also zombie cosplay, blood-drinking play, wound play, insect fantasy, and even mini “eyeball” art accessories.
There was even hypnosis!
Performers in the stage area included foreign cross-dresser idol Ladybeard (who is SUPER popular now) and Luchino Fujisaki. We planned to attend the latter but the line was too much to handle. Likewise the fetish film screenings looked awesome but we had to escape the crowds after an hour of taking in booths.
Our only real gripe is that the venue, though a lot of fun with all the maze of different rooms filled with booths and various kinds of exhibitors (even in the kitchen areas), had very narrow corridors and stairways, which often became intolerably crowded.
We can’t wait for the next Fetish Festival!
