Rubbout 23 Review

Rubbout 23 was fun. We felt that it was the best-executed and 'party-est' one to date. The logistics ran very smoothly, and there were a few different challenges this year compared to others in addition to some disappointing mechanical breakdowns that weren't anticipated.

There was some feedback that came in of a lack of 'quieter' social opportunities earlier in the weekend, some comments about the host hotel and a few other things but overall feedback was pretty good. There were lots of kudos on the fun that was had, we really were happy with the outcomes of the Gear Swap, Pup Mosh, Tight End Play Party and the brunch. The numbers were a bit disappointing for the Grand Slam Dance Party and the Watersports party, numbers were down 30% overall for weekend pass sales, which was probably the biggest disappointment of the weekend, we lost my vac-tower in a catastrophic explosion at the play party and ended up buying a rental CD player that one of the DJs hung a 100W lamp over top of and went away for awhile before realizing the top plate melted.

We feel there was a lack of proper promotion of the event locally and we started promotion continentally too late. There is an initiative to push this to be completed by mid-year this year in preparation for 2015's event so that we can be promoting in San Francisco, Chicago, east Coast in the fall of 2014 and early 2015 instead of waiting until February/March 2015. We want to have a website up and running by Vancouver Pride in August 2014.

Rubbout 23: Gear Up!, the 2014 installment of the annual rubber and fetish event for men in Vancouver, BC, once again attracted a great crowd of rubbermen from all over North America to attend. This year there was a great presence of rubbermen, gearheads and pups from the entire Pacific Northwest region.

Friday, after early Registration at Pumpjack, the action started at Heaven's Door with the Grand Slam Greet the Meat Party at 9:30pm. Approximately 175-200 locals and out-of-towners mingled, flirted, played and danced the night away to DJ Del Stamp with great fanfare and energy.

All in all, the parties were great. The Grand Slam on Friday evening had 175-200 attendees and everyone said they had a lot of fun.

Saturday the Gear Swap intake kicked off at 11am at Pumpjack and the sale at 1pm while the Puppybowl hosted by VAN-PAH started across Davie Street at Junction at 2pm. The Gear Swap generated the most money for Rubbout ever and despite the rain, there was great attendance at both events. Saturday evening, the Tight End Play Party at Club 8x6 assembled 125 frisky guys into one room where they could circulate between a lounge, dancefloor, play area and bondage demo area. Excellent music was provided by DJ Marc Tattoo. Despite the sad loss of a vac-tower due to 'monitor over-enthusiasm', this party was great and one of the most active play spaces we've seen in a long time!

We had our most money made at the Gear Swap EVER and most raffle ticket sales EVER on Saturday; it appears the pre-raffle contests we ran had some positive impact. the Tight End Play Party at Club 8x6 on Saturday was excellent, bringing out 125 guys which resulted in an extremely active play area which was great to see, a fun rubber bondage demo area, and kudos from the Club for the best party they've hosted since they opened.

Sunday morning collected everyone at Heaven's Door once again for the traditional Rubbout brunch. This year we were treated to the comedic stylings of David C. Jones immediately after a great brunch selection. There were some fantastic prizes raffled off over the weekend and awarded at the brunch. The raffle draw generated a record amount of sales for Rubbout this year as well! Sunday night the last event of the weekend was a new one for Rubbout. In the sports theme, the Shootout Watersports party was held in the shower area at Steamworks Baths. Approximately 25 guys enjoyed the watersports area and particularly the lube-wrestling competition in the lube pool! The entertainment at Brunch on Sunday was a great addition and something to build on in the future. Events with water, lube and piss are a must and we will try to augment this event more in future versions.

Some of the things I'd like to see change for next year:
1. We still didn't have enough people on committee to properly deal with all the work. Once again 90% of the work in the months leading up to the weekend fell on Rob and I. 100% of the wrap-up work once again fell on me. It's just too much. Luckily it seems three guys are keen on joining the executive in big roles which should help distribute the work and result in better outcomes in the areas we thought were lacking. The younger guys on the team got good exposure to the scale of logistics for putting such a weekend-long event on and hopefully they will want to get involved more as time goes on.
2. Promotion was too scattered, too broad and too late. We are working to rectify all of this for Rubbout 24 and hope to have some promotional stuff available for IML, Folsom, MIR, Toronto and Montreal Pride, etc. A well-definited promotion and marketing plan is required, as well as a dedicated resource to implement it.
3. The Host Hotel will be moving to a more central location for 2015. We hope to utilize it more for Rubbout-related events in addition to being a convenient crash place for out-of-town attendees.
4. Catering for brunch will be done by a more professional organization (maybe even hopefully the host hotel).
5. We are hoping the renovations of Pumpjack will allow for the Gear Swap and the Pup Event to take place under the same roof for the first time.
6. We are hoping the renovation of Pumpjack will allow for more social opportunities as opposed to party opportunities...we'd like to have a proper Great the Meat followed by a dance party in the same venue.
7. Club 8x6 is a great venue for sex parties and we hope to capitalize on it for several Rubbout promotional events over the next 10 months leading up to next year's event.
8. Website MUST be up this year and a functional mobile site MUST be available.
9. Thinking about more a-la-carte event ticket availability versus weekend passes?
10. Since Thursday is going to be a rubber invasion day, maybe we will think up something completely unique and different...in the theme of Industrial Revolution, perhaps?
11. Sponsorship plans will be simple and more tailored to each potential sponsor.
12. We potentially need to re-engage or further integrate local groups such as VML, the YVR Sisters, and Van-PAH more into the execution and volunteerism required for Rubbout in future years.

 

Thanks to everyone who attended Rubbout 23. Mark in your calendars the dates for Rubbout 24 in 2015. April 2-5 (Easter long weekend) will be a period of 'Industrial Revolution'!!!