IML 2010 Report

The American Memorial Day weekend is when thousands of pervy leathermen and men of all fetish stripes invade Chicago for four days of debauchery and camaraderie. This year was my second trip to this event, and it was just as dizzying and exciting as IML30 that I attended in 2008. This time I went with friends from Vancouver and met up with most of the crew from Calgary that I went with in 2008. It was destiny that hilarity and trouble would ensue.

We arrived Thursday evening and headed to the Hyatt Regency where we found some of the revelers had already checked in and had already partially filled the lobby and lobby bar. I changed into casual rubber and we headed to the BIG Bar in the lobby. Drinks were had, laughs and reunions were made. I met up with a friend and we went up to his room where he had a sleepsack. We took the sleepsack to my room where we played for awhile then went back down to the bar. A friend from L.A. and one of the competitors of last year's MIR were staying in our room for Thursday night. They had a bunch of equipment for the MIR Booth in the vendor market that they stored in our room, so after a few more hours we all headed up to our room, pulled out the sleepsack again in addition to a vacuum bag and had a few more hours of fun.
Friday morning we got up, ate and headed down to the Vendor Market in the convention level of the East Tower. Already the crowds were growing bigger as more and more people were checking in and as the workday ended even more people from Chicago started milling through. The Vendor Market was slightly smaller than previous years due to the economy, but was impressive nonetheless.
As far as demos were concerned, the MIR booth had one of the best locations right beside Mr. S and arguably had the best demos...at least for the rubbery crowd. It was at a bottleneck in the traffic flow so everyone had to slow down and take a look at the demos there: vacuum wall, bondage table demos, pallet-wrapped mummies tied to the steel support structures and slaves secured in restraints. Other highlights included Mr. S's sleepsack demos and Recon's Alien Egg. There were lots of other demos of chastity, bondage, flogging and vac-cubes.
I bought a few things then we headed upstairs in the late afternoon to get ready for the Chicago Rubbermen Greet the Meat Party in the West Tower.

The party was a perfect time to re-acquaint with old friends, meet new friends and greet newcomers. There were many great outfits and lots of conversation and flirting.
Afterwards I met up with some of the Canadian contingent to check out the Puppy Play Party where highlights were the big play area on the dancefloor and the cat piñata filled with chewtoy cats that got totally demolished in a frenzied puppy pile. We even saw one puppy attack a garbage can, chew open the bag and spill the garbage all over the floor. His Handler was not impressed. I'm sure he got punished thoroughly.
Next door was the GearBlast. We spent quite a bit of time there running into more people we knew.

There were lots of people milling in the lobby outside the conference rooms, on the mainfloor of the West Tower where the San Francisco Party and the silent auction were taking place. We spent most of the remainder of the evening at the SF Party. At one point it was extremely busy with a very good energy.

Afterwards we headed back to the main lobby and BIG Bar in the East Tower and milled around again, heading to bed after too many drinks.

Saturday afternoon I had a shift at the MIR Booth so headed down to the Market around 2pm. There were markedly thicker crowds at this point and this continued while I worked the booth with the Chicago Rubbermen and other volunteer rubbermen from around the continent, meeting lots of people along the way. It was a great vantage point for people watching. There were people of all stripes and flavors milling through the Market today.
Afterwards we prepared and went to the James Hatton Celebration of Life. His partner Matt and his friends hosted this private get-together. It was good to remember James with the people that cared about him the most, see old faces and meet new ones, and watch some sexy rope bondage. We had intended to leave this party around 9 and check out the BLUF Party but we ended up sticking around until 10:30 then heading straight downstairs to the CODE party in the West Tower. There was an Onyx Party on the main floor and the CODE Party and a Texas Party were downstairs. The CODE party was pseudo dress code. There was a big play tent in the middle of the room in addition to a barber station, a flogging station, piercings and a big back area for play. The air conditioning was full blast and a lot of people were staying outside between the two parties because it was a lot warmer in the lobby.

Because so many people were milling out there, it was actually more fun from a social standpoint than it was in the parties themselves! We spent a lot of time visiting and flirting with old and new alike. Activities in the play tent and back area got quite feverish at times.
I wore my Libidex military catsuit which drew lots of attention, praise, and questions. There were lots of other remarkable costumes and outfits seen throughout the night. We headed back up to the East Tower lobby and BIG Bar and continued socializing. A rubberfriend of mine and I ended up going up to my room for a night and early morning of playing.

Sunday morning we ate and said goodbye to some of the Calgary contingent. In the afternoon for no reason I dressed up in my black rubber catsuit, boots, gasmask and gloves and wandered around the Vendor Market. I stopped by the MIR Booth for some time, managed to get a turn in the vacuum wall, then went upstairs to the room again, had a nap before dressing in harness and jockstrap and partying with everyone in the hotel lobby and BIG Bar. We decided not to go to the Contest or the Victory Party. Depending on who I talked to both were impressive even though I heard the Contest was too long, the talent parts were questionable, and Colton Ford's music was far too loud. The Victory party was very busy and was more of a circuit party than a leather event and the music was good, a local Chicago DJ was playing. From the perspective of those hundreds and hundreds milling in the hotel lobby and bar, it was interesting to watch two waves of men come back to the hotel; the Contest leathermen around midnight, and the House of Blues Victory Party e-crowd around 3:30. Most of us were so tired from the night before we all went to our rooms and crashed.
On Monday big thunderstorms shook us awake. They continued until mid-afternoon. We packed, checked out of the room, ate, then I went downstairs with other friends for some last minute shopping. I got my measurements done by Jose at E7 Rubber for some future suit ideas, tried on a few things, bought a few shirts, exchanged some phone numbers, had a few beers then went back upstairs, said goodbye to as many friends as I could find and around 5pm, me and two of the Vancouver contigent hopped a taxi to O'Hare for our trip back home. The thunderstorms had backed up flights in O'Hare so most flights had been delayed for two to three hours which meant the terminals were packed with a sea of humanity and our 8pm flight was now leaving at 10:30. I didn't get home until 2am Tuesday morning.

...

Some personal thoughts:

There were definite increases in the number of alternative fetishes at this year's party and in particular rubbermen. It seems to be a trend that isn't stopping. I'm not sure how the majority of leathermen feel about this; there wasn't any outward hostility towards anything non-leather but there were moments when the rubberguys (maybe only me?!?!) felt like an unapproachable minority in the crowd.

The prices in the hotel were astronomical and the attitude of the hotel management was offensive. To clarify, the staff themselves were remarkable but with the presentation of the 'list of rules' at check-in and penalties for ridiculous things, alcohol prohibition in the hotel rooms in addition to no change in hours for food in the restaurants, etc. was regrettable. They didn't appear to be interested in catering to their present market during the weekend at all. At times we felt like B-class guests and that the impression I had of the attitude of the management was that they were doing us a favor by letting us have our event at their facility while at the same time charging us A-class prices...plus premiums. I agree that the amount of effort to host so many people in such numbers and volume would be a challenge and there was definite need to provide extra effort and input in certain areas of the operation of having this event there, but they didn't have to approach the guests with disdain or judgment. I think that because IML signed a multi-year agreement with the hotel complex, the hotel management feels that they can dictate whatever terms they want. I only hope that this attitude gets dropped by the hotel in future years as some of the kinks are worked out or made more efficient in the logistics of hosting this event in 2011 and beyond.

I regret that I had to skip the Recon Full Fetish Party at Jackhammer/The Hole, the Black & Blue Party on Tuesday, and some of the other parties going on all at the same time. You basically had to resolve to the fact you were going to miss a lot of things; there was THAT much going on simultaneously. The host hotel was downtown, Boyztown and locations further north were an appreciable cab ride away; for those of us without weekend passes and access to the shuttle buses, this was definitely a consideration when deciding to venture out of the hotel for parties or not.

Generally the weekend was fantastic. It is SO nice to have almost all the events centralized in one complex and to have so many options on what do to at any given time. This year I didn't do any city sightseeing at all. The men that attended were horny, sexy and generally gorgeous. There were more porn stars in one location than I've ever seen in my life before. It also helped that the Grabby Awards were taking place in Chicago on Saturday night.

Personally, I spent most of my time re-connecting with rubberfriends and meeting new ones, and ended up playing exclusively with rubberguys over the course of the weekend. I think this is why I have come to the conclusion (once again? I think I stated this back in 2008 too) that MIR is more my event - obviously more gear-focused than IML will ever be, which is overly sex-based. Not that I'm against sex or anything! LOL

MIR is a lot more intimate affair and not quite the sensory overload that is IML. It is also centralized in Boyztown versus the CBD. If I had to pick one event to visit Chicago for once a year it will definitely be MIR, not IML. I'm happy to leave IML in the future for the pervy leathermen of the world and help to grow MIR as an event for everyone else! :)

Regardless, I would recommend any guy who's into kink, leather, rubber, bondage, what-have-you should attend IML at least once. It is very inspiring to witness the number of guys from around the world that are into the same things that you are.

There is lots of coverage of IML 32 at many of the blogs in the blogroll on the sidebar including Ruff's Stuff, Ben In Leatherland, and Wolvesperv.

POSTSCRIPT:  I wanted to retract some of my cuntyness towards the host hotel in this entry.  I was feeling that what I wrote was a too scathing for what actually happened.  So, we received a 'code of conduct' letter at check-in.  The guests at the hotel, possibly to spite the letter, made sure that they broke all the rules outlined in it.  The hotel waived the charges for certain things for certain people, like the $25 fine for storing liquor in the room fridges.  We are fortunate to have this event and fortunate to have a hotel complex staff that will tolerate the insane behaviour of 6000 drunk, horny, slutty gay men, keep a smile on their face and ask us to come back again next year.   I just wanted to apologize for being such a cranky bitch about this.