At the end of September this year I joined the wonderful Goddess Cleo’s birthday outing to Club Pedestal in London. For those who’ve not encountered the name before it is the UK’s biggest fetish event dedicated solely to the FemDom dynamic. Now, of course this presents a little bit of a challenge for those in the non-binary category but so long as you are not masculine presenting then you have the option of taking the Domme, Switch or Neutral role. All masculine presenting people must take the submissive, bottom or admirer role.
I was with a great group of gorgeous Ladies and we had our very own Champagne Sub carrying an ice bucket and plentiful refills of celebratory bubbles. Don’t get your hopes up of this being part of the club experience: we brought him with us! What is included in your entry however is the house boys kneeling to you upon entry to present you with a single-stem rose. It’s a very nice touch.
How friendly is it for first-timers?
I can only speak to this from the Femme perspective obviously plus I attended with a large group of people I already knew plus knew a few of my friends would also be attending. Over the course of the evening none of the other Ladies responded to my attempts at social chatter though. I was however approached several times by friendly and polite men who struck up conversation (most frequently about my latex hood from Bright&Shiny) and two lovely gentlemen I have nicknamed Left and Right as they teamed up to deliver a much appreciated foot massage late on in the evening.
Not that this is a downside by any means, a fair proportion of the Dommes in attendance were Pro Practitioners. It would be a fantastic way to meet some of the lovely Ladies of London and it does mean that there’s a high level of skill in the room. I was aware of a couple of ladies who were being accompanied by clients to the club by arrangement beforehand, but far more were just having fun in a far more casual way.
If the concept of Pro Dommes offends you however, this may not be the club for you.
House Slaves
There were plenty of House Slaves around. This elite team of subs are volunteers who’ve undergone some training with the club organisers to provide temporary slave services to any of the Domme attendees (consensually of course). I didn’t make any use of their services personally, but they were certainly bustling around productively through the evening.
Downsides
To be very clear, my experience was overall very positive and I am only including the following points as they may be very important for other people considering attending.
Getting in was one of the most strict security processes I have ever encountered in a fetish club. For clarity, this is the venue’s security team and not Pedestal themselves. Legal Name ID is scanned and you must pass through security scanners and have your bag searched in order to enter. I personally had nothing more exciting than a water bottle confiscated, but other Ladies in our group had some of their kit taken away. This included gloves with very small spikes which apparently were considered to be a weapon(!) and a substantial dispute arose around bringing in the birthday cake. This was inconsistently applied however as the far more dangerous singletail whips seemed to pass scrutiny for a number of attendees.
I’m still a bit uncomfortable with the scanned ID portion of this process given the lack of clarity around who exactly gets to see it once it is stored. Only government issued ID was acceptable which means either revealing my passport number or my home address on a driving licence. In the age of identity theft and GDPR there really ought to be clearly displayed details of the reasons it is necessary and how it will be stored. I will also not be alone in possessing ID that has the legal name that I am obliged to use rather than the name I choose to be known by.
In summary…
Pedestal is a lot of fun and is probably best enjoyed with friends or getting to know some other attendees beforehand. It’s busy, vibrant and full of fun activities should you choose to indulge.
Toy|Dolly 
Great post. Pedestal is a really nice event (though can get a bit crowded). The biggest problem for me is that it’s on Thursdays, which is tricky for those of us who work weekdays… It does make sure that you only get those who really want to be there, though.
Being male I’ve only experienced it from the submissive side; like other events it usually has an imbalanced sub/domme ratio, so the dommes get to take their pick of the subs, but that’s arguably just as it should be. 🙂 But even if you don’t get to play, it always has a really fun atmosphere. Glad you enjoyed it!
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