Hell Party 17.04.2010 @ Club Abaton

Hell Party 17.04.2010 @ Club Abaton

Have you ever wondered about what goes on underground? Provokátor Staff have literally been to Hell and back to deliver a report for you...

Two writers and two photographers, completely unaware of what to expect, explored the makeshift dungeons of Club Abaton to discover why the biggest fetish party in the Czech Republic is so popular.

by Antonio Baroni

Photos by Alexander Venndt & Matthias Ronck


First of all, if you think of goth, fetish, leather and bdsm people as rude, distant and inaccessible, it's time to change your mind! The atmosphere couldn't have been more friendly and one could really sense that everybody had been looking forward to this special event. A profusion of acid colours, leather costumes, rubber, lattex, whips and mistresses roamed through corridors, stages, shops, concert halls and an exceptionally cheap but tasty vegan restaurant.

Obviously, our virgin curiosity drew us immediately to the fetish stage, where attractive and apparently helpless young women were volunteering to be tied up and whipped teasingly by big, bad leather clad men, to the laughter and applause of the audience, from whom some courageous partygoers would be next to to try it out for themselves.

But what really drove the crowd crazy was blood, or more precisely, the performance of two beautiful corseted girls, Maša and Kristina, cutting each other and licking away red drops from their thighs, while trying to reach an ecstatic state having their lips sewn together. This is what was going on during the Hell Show, on the upper floor.

Despite the clear and unequivocal sexual references, the two girls don't see their performance as arousing, "There is nothing sexual about it", says Maša right after the show, with her lips still partially sewn together, "it's like a ritual". Scarifications are really common among many tribes in Africa and in Oceania and they are often perceived as initiation rites, namely passages from one state to the other (e.g. from being a child to being an active member of society). Maša assures that she feels different after the ritual on stage as well. Kristina, her partner, has already been performing for 5 years, having started when she was just 18, and she agrees with Maša, "I don't feel aroused, it's more like taking drugs. Pain produces adrenaline, when I'm on stage, and after, I feel high". Also the audience didn't perceive the show as arousing but just exciting "I like pain", says Hana, at her third attendance at Hell Party, "I like to do it also in private", although her partner, Jakub, doesn't seem to agree "I'm completely new to the scene. I wouldn't try anything myself, but it's funny to watch". When questioned about the necklace she was wearing, Hana replies "I don't know what it means. It's just fashion". This remark illustrates something that seems central to the magic of Hell Party: fashion, appearance, dressing up, showing off and trying to get attention. That's exactly what Betty, a sweet transvestite, likes to do: "I'm really into fetish and dressing up; but I'm not interested in extreme pain. For example, I find the suspension workshop extremely boring; I like soft bdsm with my partner, but when I see a guy hung by hooks to the ceiling, I feel like an alien, I don't understand why people are interested in watching it". Apparently, in a world where everybody looks like an alien, there is still the chance to feel different or to have difficulty to understand; "Even in the fetish-bdsm scene, people can have some issues to be completely open-minded. My girlfriend, for example, accepts the fact that I like to dress as a woman when I'm home with her but she doesn't want me to appear in public like this".

If the scarification performance of Maša and Kristina wasn't intended to be sexy, surprisingly Tomas, an apparently regular straight next-door guy finds the suspension show sensual, maybe because "it was more extreme and dramatic". Basically, while solemn music is playing, a master and a mistress stick needles in the chest and in the arms of a scar(ifi)ed guy, and then insert hooks in the shoulders and in the wrists of a boy and of a girl, who are consequently lifted in a crucifix suspension position, seemingly in an eccentric mix of pain and pleasure.

A fundamental ingredient of the success of the event has definitely been the music, be it punk, metal or ebm. The crowd of vegan-friendly punk-rock followers seemed to have particularly appreciated the aberrant but still overwhelmingly involving performance of Super Pilot, led by their front woman Marika, for the occasion appearing in a gore-medical costume, just to reveal, later, a torn, provoking and blasphemous outfit, whilst making the audience freak out to the sound of good old dirty punk rock.

This colourful multicultural/multigender infernal circle manages to offer every kind of titillating entertainment you may wish for, from the softcore to the utmost hardcore; if you are fearful, you won't be too scared (just stay away from the main stage and stick to the stalls selling bags and to the kiosks of tofu hamburgers) and if you are a crazy devil, you won't be disappointed for sure. Have you lost your chance this year? Next time don't hesitate and please, go-to-Hell(.cz)!