Through its jaw one Friday night in September, past a clothes check counter and two thudding dancefloors, a dark hallway opened into a colorfully lit room where various limbs were entangled in a game of feline Twister. Held in Berlin since , Folsom Europe attracts thousands of international visitors for four nights and early mornings of no-holds-barred erotic parties. But few are quite like BOAR. Part of a growing wave of consciously inclusive queer club nights around the world, BOAR is proactive about welcoming a wide spectrum of guests — especially those often excluded from events that collide dance, festish play, and on-site sex.
Queer clubs and parties that invite public sex have typically catered exclusively to men, but a crop of new events in cities like Berlin and New York have begun challenging the norm. Curico and the other organizers began throwing the party last fall to create what they felt these weekends lacked: a space where queer people of all gender, ethnic, and varying identities are welcome to dance and play together.
A woman stood arranging an impressive selection of fetish gear for sale — harnesses, whips, armbands, and other accessories — all hand-made of repurposed rubber from old tires. The weather had already turned crisp, but handfuls of co-ed groups sat chatting and palming cold beers. Dark passageways separated two dance floors — one for house, one for techno a split typical of Berlin clubs — and gave way to shadowy corners also meant to invite play.
Wandering around that night, it was thrillingly easy to lose my bearings, and always a delight to stumble back into the cat-themed parlor that became my compass. The team behind BOAR , which has grown and shifted with each party, includes organizers who are migrants, people of color, trans, and cisgender, Curico says. Three days after the party had ended at 10 a. Curico is conscious of including the perspective of sex workers as well, particularly as it comes to shaping a space where people are encouraged to be safe, practice consent, and thrive sexually.
It's a party; it's not activism. But it's creating at least some sort of platform where we can talk about how society restricts sex and bodies — and why. A table at the party was spread with information and tools for safe drug use clean straws for snorting, measuring droppers for G and safe sex everything from condoms and lube to pamphlets about PrEP and fisting. That everyone who walks in feels safe and celebrated is tantamount at BOAR, starting with a door team specially trained to avoid exclusionary energy from the outset.
