Erotica 2009 at London Olympia

We headed off to the bright lights of London to Olympia, this year’s home of the erotic and sexy world of Erotica. Erotica has become infamous with anyone looking for some extra special ‘bedroom fun’ accessories right through to the downright bizarre.

With excitement and no hint of embarrassment we paid the hefty entrance fee of £27.00 each and observed the ridiculous sign on the doors saying no cameras or public nudity…surely that is kind of the point of the show, no doubt to keep the Police, Council and exhibition centre’s overzealous paper pushers happy.

Anyway back to the show, Erotica is the largest retail show of its kind in the UK and the claim Europe back I am not sure about the later. With 75,000 visitors due this year the show’s success is evident and the shows website and all their publicity is very high quality and professional. The event is a fair size but the party of first timers I took along all felt that the show have been bigger and have more in the way of diverse entertainment. There are several shows throughout the day and we caught the first one at 2pm. The show features a mixture of performers from the world of erotic performance art and the burlesque scene. It was very arty but we all felt it was a bit slow and a little tame as far as shows go.

On the retail side of things, there were plenty of ringing tills about but most of the show’s retailers are very specialist and many offering fetish, S&M and alternative lifestyle products. The show’s sex toy retailers were a mixture of the big internet names and small market style retailers. The later offering what could only be described as mainly cheap crap from China full of nasty chemicals and right at the bottom of the pile. I expected that of course, but the prices weren’t exactly rock bottom in fact quite the opposite. The larger retailers had some quality brands but again diluted there brands by selling it alongside the cheaper tacky stuff, trying to be all things to all people I guess.

There were some good ideas and the clothing and fetish wear was top class, the customers were from all walks of life which I love to see as it clearly shows that enjoying a healthy sexual desire is not restricted by gender, age, race or financial background.

Following a quick tour checking out the competition and a couple of drinks we reflected on the whole Erotica experience. General feeling was it was OK, not outstanding but just OK. Tickets are overpriced was a common compliant but all felt it was great to see so many people able to freely express their inner thoughts, fantasies and sexual preferences out in the open and all in one place.

From my point of view the competition in the Sex toy market aren’t offering the high level of quality or toxic free designer branded products that we can offer under the same roof and most still be aimed at men rather than being aimed at the women that use them, which is the foundation we at www.angelssecret.co.uk are built on. So the completion aren’t nearly there yet which will leave us to continue to build on our upmarket reputation.

As for the show, an entertaining and eye opening half days entertainment but still with room for improvement on all levels.

Enjoy….