Dark Odyssey Surrender 2015
While living on the east coast I heard great things about the Dark Odyssey events. They host some camping and hotel kink/sex events each year near DC. I never made it to them due to a mix of travel distance, timing, and cost. This year I happened to be in the bay area when their sole west coast event, Surrender, was taking place. Between volunteering and continuing with my RV lifestyle, attending was extremely affordable, so I decided to check it out.
During setup I could already see one major difference between Surrender and my previous experience with kink events of similar size (~1000 people). Putting together furniture and equipment for the play spaces, it was obvious that they were much bigger than I've seen before. My experience later in the weekend would bear this out. At no point did I see a line for any space or equipment. In addition to having plenty of rope suspension points (heavy truss, not just wooden frames!), benches and cages, and other bondage furniture, there was also a lot more space, including furniture, for "just" fucking than I am used to seeing at events with an ostensibly kinky slant, with a massive supply of clean sheets and other cleaning and safer sex supplies. In those regards, Surrender is definitely the most well equipped event I've been to.
The event itself had a nice variety of classes, panels, and workshops, although fewer than I'm used to seeing for that size of event. The events I attended were well run and informative. I learned a new futomomo variation, a new knot for drops, and some things about mechanical leverage in suspension frames. Similarly to Shibaricon, there was little to do other than shop when events were taking place. I continue to miss the east coast staples of a con suite, video room, game room, art show, etc. Somewhat balancing this out for some people, one track of Surrender's schedule was mostly full of social meetups for different groups (by gender, age, kink, etc), mini-munches/drunches/sloshes. They also featured lunch and dinner breaks in the schedule, imposing a hiatus on most event tracks twice a day. Unfortunately, like many similar events, Surrender's attendees don't seem to have discovered the concept of a room party. This is the single biggest lack I find when comparing this to events like Frolicon.
As someone attending such events alone, I'm always on the lookout for events and activities and such that help people make connections. Psychokitty hosted Kinky Speed Dating, as he had at Shibaricon, and it worked rather well. I got to meet 24 bottom-type people, about 8 of whom I was interested in playing with. A slightly overlapping 8 expressed interest in me, as well. Although nothing came of it at the event, a couple of those overlaps seem likely to bear fruit at some point in the future. At one of the rope skill share events the host put out stickers for rope tops/switches/bottoms to wear, but they were not popular enough to be useful. Ditto for someone putting out identification beads near registration, which I wore to no effect other than getting to explain them to a few people. I've posted in the organization's Fetlife group that I'd be interested in organizing a wish board and/or singles social mixer, and something might come of that if I attend again.
The vending was implemented in the style of a row of hotel rooms, rather than a ballroom. This has the positive aspect of allowing vendors to open and close at their own discretion, with wider or narrower hours. The down side of that is never knowing when to show up to find most or all of the vendors, or any specific vendor, open. The selection was not as broad as I am used to seeing at events like GKE and Frolicon, but was more than sufficient for most things someone might want or need to buy at a play event.
On a more personal note, the weekend was relatively good in terms of social networking and play. I got to see and chat with a few old friends and acquaintances, including from Chicago and Boston. I met a number of locals with whom I'm likely to remain in touch. I got to arrange one serious play scene, and one class-exercise-turned-suspension-scene, with potential future opportunities to play with each of them again. I am looking forward to both. The low point of my weekend was discovering an unprinted rule against some of my favorite forms of social electric play. I'll have to find a way to fill that niche in my toy bag with something else before I attend again.
Overall, the event was quite enjoyable. I would certainly go again to a Dark Odyssey event, if I am ever again in the right part of the country at the right time and can do it again on a <$100 budget rather than the $500+ budget that seems more typical (travel, ticket, hotel).
During setup I could already see one major difference between Surrender and my previous experience with kink events of similar size (~1000 people). Putting together furniture and equipment for the play spaces, it was obvious that they were much bigger than I've seen before. My experience later in the weekend would bear this out. At no point did I see a line for any space or equipment. In addition to having plenty of rope suspension points (heavy truss, not just wooden frames!), benches and cages, and other bondage furniture, there was also a lot more space, including furniture, for "just" fucking than I am used to seeing at events with an ostensibly kinky slant, with a massive supply of clean sheets and other cleaning and safer sex supplies. In those regards, Surrender is definitely the most well equipped event I've been to.
The event itself had a nice variety of classes, panels, and workshops, although fewer than I'm used to seeing for that size of event. The events I attended were well run and informative. I learned a new futomomo variation, a new knot for drops, and some things about mechanical leverage in suspension frames. Similarly to Shibaricon, there was little to do other than shop when events were taking place. I continue to miss the east coast staples of a con suite, video room, game room, art show, etc. Somewhat balancing this out for some people, one track of Surrender's schedule was mostly full of social meetups for different groups (by gender, age, kink, etc), mini-munches/drunches/sloshes. They also featured lunch and dinner breaks in the schedule, imposing a hiatus on most event tracks twice a day. Unfortunately, like many similar events, Surrender's attendees don't seem to have discovered the concept of a room party. This is the single biggest lack I find when comparing this to events like Frolicon.
As someone attending such events alone, I'm always on the lookout for events and activities and such that help people make connections. Psychokitty hosted Kinky Speed Dating, as he had at Shibaricon, and it worked rather well. I got to meet 24 bottom-type people, about 8 of whom I was interested in playing with. A slightly overlapping 8 expressed interest in me, as well. Although nothing came of it at the event, a couple of those overlaps seem likely to bear fruit at some point in the future. At one of the rope skill share events the host put out stickers for rope tops/switches/bottoms to wear, but they were not popular enough to be useful. Ditto for someone putting out identification beads near registration, which I wore to no effect other than getting to explain them to a few people. I've posted in the organization's Fetlife group that I'd be interested in organizing a wish board and/or singles social mixer, and something might come of that if I attend again.
The vending was implemented in the style of a row of hotel rooms, rather than a ballroom. This has the positive aspect of allowing vendors to open and close at their own discretion, with wider or narrower hours. The down side of that is never knowing when to show up to find most or all of the vendors, or any specific vendor, open. The selection was not as broad as I am used to seeing at events like GKE and Frolicon, but was more than sufficient for most things someone might want or need to buy at a play event.
On a more personal note, the weekend was relatively good in terms of social networking and play. I got to see and chat with a few old friends and acquaintances, including from Chicago and Boston. I met a number of locals with whom I'm likely to remain in touch. I got to arrange one serious play scene, and one class-exercise-turned-suspension-scene, with potential future opportunities to play with each of them again. I am looking forward to both. The low point of my weekend was discovering an unprinted rule against some of my favorite forms of social electric play. I'll have to find a way to fill that niche in my toy bag with something else before I attend again.
Overall, the event was quite enjoyable. I would certainly go again to a Dark Odyssey event, if I am ever again in the right part of the country at the right time and can do it again on a <$100 budget rather than the $500+ budget that seems more typical (travel, ticket, hotel).