It is a bit Ironic that right Next to the Venus a Apprenticeship and University Expo was Held
The Venus Berlin claims to be the largest adult entertainment expo in the world. Growing up in Germany, I have seen the pictures of scantily dressed women in lascivious poses on the billboards for the show. So I always considered it a very vanilla and very hetero-male focused event. Last weekend I have read an interview with the head of PR in the gay online magazine Queer.de how they now want to appeal to LGBTQ+, queer and even asexual people. A couple of years ago, they also introduced the Kinky Venus, a section focused on kinksters. This was reason enough for me to ask if I could get a press pass which I luckily got. So this is my review of the Venus Berlin Adult Entertainment Expo 2025 from a gay male kinkster’s perspective.
The Visitors and the Vibe
There are very distinct visitor groups. The largest are straight males who see the fair as some kind of stag party. The usually come in groups of friends and are mostly in their 20s. They are there to see the shows, grab freebies (as soon as there was something free to get, long lines formed) and take pictures with the adult performers. In a world where sexual pleasure is more and more experienced online, almost like a simulacrum between the watcher and the performer, seeing interest in real, tangible acts and experiences was kind or relieving.
The next big group is vanilla looking couples who are looking for inspiration to spice up their marriage. Most of them are in their 30s or 40s. It was interesting to see how the dynamics of the couples changed over the course of attending the fair. When they first entered, mostly the man was leading. But the further you get into the fair, the woman became the exploring and driving factor, sometimes making their husband looking surprised.
A smaller but very noticeable group is the people leading a sexually alternative lifestyle. This could be open couples, couples with a power dynamic, kinksters, body mod fan, etc.. They can be quickly identified because they made an effort dressing up. While the two groups above give off a vibe of horniness, they seem to be driven by curiosity and self expression. Watching them felt a bit like sitting down at Folsom and seeing kinksters being the true self. Some really put effort into their looks! Others deeply impressed like the body mod couple in their late 70s who unapologetic strolled over the fair just in stockings and a walking cane.
Yours Truely with his Still Broken Smartphone Front Camera getting Ready to Explore the Venus
The smallest group is actually gays. You can identify them easily by the scene accessories like Sk8erboy sox, BenSWild gym backs or Gear t-shirts. My assumption is that they are quite tolerant because if you have an issue with seeing pussy like sadly many (insecure?) gays are, the Venus is the wrong place for you!
The vibe of the fair is a pressing, for me personally almost uncomfortable horniness. Voyeurism is expected and encouraged. But it is a somewhat greedy, not consent asking voyeurism, very different for the appreciating, encouraging and distance keeping observation culture in the BDSM and kink scene. I guess the performers are used to this kind of attention because satisfying these primal urges and actions is their job and they have gotten used to it. Having been socialized in the BDSM community, it made me feel a bit uneasy.
There are half a dozen big stages distributed over the three main exhibition halls. On them you see female-on-female and some male-on-female shows. I am actually not sure if penetrative sex is actually happening there; I have only seen dildos being used. Maybe they reserve the full sex show for later in the day when the fair is busiest. There is a dedicated male strip stage in the vendor hall. It is closed off after with moveable walls. Most of the shows are for women access only. My assumption is that too many men have a too fragile masculinity to being accidentally exposed to another man’s dick.
The Kinky Venus has their own dedicated performance stage. The performances there were very solid. The bondage and BDSM techniques were well executed and safe and displayed realistic BDSM scenarios yet relatively tame. Compared to the amateurs showing the skills at Folsom Europe, they are warm-up sessions at best. This is probably due to their intention to animating vanillas to try something out spicy and not scaring them away.
I arrived at 11am right after the fair opened and could comfortably walk through the halls. When I left around 2pm it was really busy and sometimes hard to move through the aisles because people were waiting in line for some random freebie.
As you would expect for an adult entertainment expo, there were dozens of sex toy, female lingerie (and very few male sexy wear) and novelty items retailers. Nothing too interesting for a kinkster but funny to see. What surprised me were the several tattoo and piercing studios which offered on-site service. Maybe the open atmosphere makes people finally go through with their body mod fantasies.
Part II: The Cool – Part III: The (Non-)Trendy – Part IV: The Challenging – Part V: The Weird & Final Thoughts
