Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar – Alternative lifestyle market embracing fetish! 

Guest Blog: Manlock interviews Faye and Beastie, Directors of the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar 

Hi Faye and Beastie 

Thankyou for agreeing to be interviewed in regards to the Birmingham Bizarre Bazaar (BBB) event you both host. 

Your time is appreciated. 

I would like to start this off with an open ended question and then we will get to the specifics if that’s alright. 

Would you tell us a little about yourselves?

So we are a lifestyle couple, we have been together for 6 years in D/s and for 4 years romantically. Faye has a background in mental health where as i have a background in retail. We actually met at the BBB. We have worked together for the past 10 years as traders at the BBB as well as event organisers, venue owners and now obviously BBB owners 🙂 

FayeSanders and Beastie-FS

And in a nutshell what is the Birmingham Bizarre Baazar (BBB)

Physically it is a market. An alternative lifestyle market embracing fetish, pagan, art, as well as alternative fashions and relationships. Spiritually, it is home. It is a safe space for people to express themselves in their alternatives, whatever form that takes.  

You took BBB over from Aychee and Earthmom? What made you want to take it over? 

It was always Fayes dream to run the BBB one day and in a playful conversation some five years ago when earthmom asked Faye what she wanted to be doing in five years, her answer was, “hopefully in your shoes” to which we all laughed. So when Aychee and Earthmom approached us May 2021 we jumped at the opportunity to be involved as well as honoured to be taking on such a legacy.

What advice would you give someone wanting to go to BBB for the first time? 

Dive in and take advantage of what is on offer. The noon tour for newbies really is a great way for first time people, especially those attending alone, to firstly find your way around the building! But also a great way to meet new people and get chatting to traders and attendees. Also come along to the stage shows, we always explain a bit more about ourselves and what’s going on during the day which can really help ease nerves and help navigate the day.

How do you come up with the themes each month? 

A mixture of suggested themes, ones we have tried previously with other events, what’s popular at the time and just things we think might work or help draw out subcultures we may not have reached before as well as celebrating the various lines of alternative within our community.

What does kink and the scene mean to you? 

We are a lifestyle couple who met at the very event we run now. We will always fight for a space to express our alternative selves and it a pleasure to provide that space to others. We call it a soul food event so for us it is a soul food job.

What is your favourite thing about BBB? 

Faye: the togetherness. Whether it’s the traders working together with us as a business, the crew and the volunteers working together and with us as a team. The attendees coming together to support us. On that day we are all there as part of a community making it work,  including each other, respecting each other, being ourselves freely with each other. It’s a very liberating and humbling experience. 

Beastie: I love the best dressed competition, don’t get me wrong, it’s exhausting and I usually have an asthma attack by the time I get off stage but I absolutely love seeing the outfits, the effort and the confidence of the people on stage as they step forward and receive their cheer!

What do you most enjoy about running BBB? 

Watching peoples journeys, seeing someone come in nervous about the day and then watching their confidence grow. Sometimes it happens during the one day, you watch them glow up throughout the day, sometimes it takes a few months of them attendance but you can recognise that moment in anyone and it is a really beautiful thing.

I imagine running BBB can be stressful. What do you do to unwind? 

We enjoy attending local events and munches where possible and we are fortunate that our crew is like our family so a post BBB breakfast with our spartans is always welcome down time but mostly, time spent together in our garden is the perfect recipe for unwinding from BBB weekend.

What other events have you previously run? 

  • Lockdown
  • Girls Night In
  • Transaction
  • Lipgloss
  • Sinday pleasures
  • Queer As Fuck
  • Little Big Land
  • The Grey Area
  • PicknMix
  • FUBAR
  • FUBAR Medical Special
  • Little Big Land Convention
  • Liberation Parties: Roman Events, Circus Event.

There we have it, Kinky Ones! 

A massive Shout-Out to Manlock and Birmingham Bizarre Baazar (BBB) for this fantastic interview. 

Please support and follow Manlock and BBB on social media so you don’t miss out the latest. 

Manlock Twitter: @Manlocksol

Birmingham Bizarre Baazar (BBB) Twitter: @BBBAltFetBazaar

Check out more interviews and articles from Manlock here.

Kinksters, let’s support each other – so please SHARE this interview with others! Also, hit me up on Twitter @podofeleus and Instagram @Podopheleus.

Much Kink Love,

Podopheleus 🖤

https://linktr.ee/Podopheleus

P.s. Check out all Podopheleus interviews here: https://www.podopheleus.com/category/interviews/

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