The Brotherhood - Gay & Night (2014)
The Brotherhood - Gay & Night (2014)
The Brotherhood - Gay & Night (2014)
/ INTERVIEW
THE
BROTHERHOOD
Within the city borders of Amsterdam, a beefy, benign
020
ORIGINS
LEATHER IN
AMSTERDAM
Arnaud admits the leather scene has been a
bit drowsy in Amsterdam for a while, something
he mostly attributes to the surge of online dating
applications in the last decade. The Internet has
destroyed the whole gay horeca business, and
with that a lot of fetish bars and parties. Because
of the multitude of dating apps, many dont feel the
need to go to bars anymore. On top of that, we had
the closing of Cockring in 2010. Also the Eagle and
Argos closed down: all these bars that were at the
center of the Amsterdam fetish scene. Theyve all
reopened now, although not all in the same form.
Cockring is now the Warehouse, and not a fetish
club anymore. Which is logical, the market has
shrunk, so you cant have as many places as before. With new events such as the Mister Leather
Amsterdam competition and a couple of new parties, the scene is stabilizing again.
The size of the scene comes with certain
benets too, according to Arnaud: Its a minority
within a minority. Because there is less choice, you
meet a much wider range of people at one event.
There isnt enough quantity to separate the scene
into smaller compartments. In the mainstream gay
scene, you will have places where younger guys
go, places where guys into sportswear will go, et
cetera. Its true that the leather scene has an image
of attracting mostly older men, but when you take
guys ranging from 20 to 75 and you consider a guy
young when hes between 25 and 35, of course
MISTER LEATHER
EUROPE
May this year, Arnaud was the second person
to win the Mister Leather Amsterdam competition
during a nale show at The Eagle. We used to
have a Mister Leather Netherlands competition,
which ceased to exist about ten years ago. Some
people, including Michael Roks [Managing director of Eagle Amsterdam ed.] and Pieter Claeys
[Mister Leather Europe 2009 ed.] decided to
revive the event, but turned it into Mister Leather
Amsterdam.
The Mister Leather Europe competition was
supposed to take place in Munich in July, but had
to be cancelled last-minute, so the event had to
nd a new home for 2014. In the end it came down
to Amsterdam or London. The former won the vote
and organized a nale show in Club Church.
A Mister Leather nale show traditionally
consists of several parts: All candidates have to
prepare an act between three and ve minutes but
preferably three. This can be a speech, a dance, a
bondage show, as long as its entertaining, related
to leather and doesnt involve showing genitals.
Arnaud pauses to show me a joyous picture of
his puppy play-act. Secondly, theres always a
set of on-stage questions, so the audience gets a
better impression of the candidates. Usually, there
are also separate private interviews with a judging
panel, which consists of delegates from the
European clubs taking part in the event. However,
seeing that the set-up for Amsterdam was quite
last-minute, we had no time for that this year.
Besides receiving a bunch of free leather gear,
which, seeing the price tag attached to this fetish, is a welcome extra Arnaud seems outright
and honest when he tells me he is mostly participating for the experience it brings him. You get
to travel and meet lots of new people. You get to
understand the dynamics of the European leather
scene, which brings in new ideas we can implement in the Amsterdam scene. From London and
201 021