You've seen the naughty posters sprinkled all over the Mother City and wonder what it's about?
After its success in Johannesburg and Durban, Sexpo – a health, sexuality and lifestyle exposition – is coming to wow Capetonians from 8 to 11 May 2008. It will be held at the CTICC and will be open from 11am to midnight each day (except Sunday when it will close at 9pm).
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Not sure if you should go? Read Health24’s Wilma van Zuydam and Heather Parker insider’s story about working at Sexpo, South Africa’s first ever sexuality expo, at Gallagher Estate in Midrand last year.
From leather to lace, to things that go “brrrr-rrrr” in the night; past latex, lubricants and lingerie…. We’ve sauntered casually past things that would ordinarily make anyone stop dead in their tracks.
From long before the doors opened each day, they queued to have a peek at the exhibits at this naughty lifestyle exhibition for over 18s. More than 32 000 people visited over four days – and some, um, came more than once.
“South Africans are becoming more comfortable with their sensuality,” said Sexpo organiser Julie Swart. “The focus is on fun as well as sexual health.” That may be so, but it was astonishing how many visitors to our tame Health24 stand felt they needed to tell us they were there for business only. Of course. Because they were in the import business and were checking out merchandising opportunities. Or because they were working backstage, in charge of sports massage for the dancers. Not a soul admitted to the sheer titillation of a hall focused primarily on everyone’s favourite after-hours activity: recreational sex.
Why Health24 was there
Sexual and reproductive health is one of Health24’s focuses. Not that we need to justify our presence there of course. Because we were so respectable (we had flowers on our stand, for heaven’s sake, and banned the body painters, the guys who were hawking little plastic vibrators that hook on to your electric toothbrush for easier travel, and anyone wearing too many ropes), lots of readers came over to chat.
We weren’t about the giggly stuff, so people felt safe with us. So safe, in fact, that we found ourselves discussing their erectile dysfunction, how various remedies worked (or not). We found ourselves discussing their sexual incompatibility while their partners fidgeted, desperate to move over to Adult World. We discussed their herpes.
Those aren’t conversations journalists are used to, but it stopped feeling strange after a while – with pole dancers on one side and the Stud Butler on the other, ED is a walk in the park, as subjects go.
So what was there to see and do?
There were DVDs, dildos, vibrators, and kinky outfits. There was the butler, a sort of automated little man with a butler’s outfit, an adjustable stand, a selection of penile accessories, and a thrust hard enough to make his ironing board rock (a couple of days into it, the motion was as restful as the wind through pines – not).
Everyone’s heard about Tim Patch, aka Pricasso, the ‘penile artist’ who uses his penis as a paintbrush. Yes it’s weird, and no, I don’t know where he got his inspiration from, but for a mere R300, visitors could have their portraits done by this penis-wielding artist. The poor man must have done hundreds of paintings over the four days of the expo – which is a lot, even for someone using more conventional tools.
A gallery exhibiting art with a bondage theme also left a lasting impression – bordering on the bizarre and definitely flirting with sadism, the pieces were captivating, sometimes disturbing. Cleverly, the exhibition space was as black as the tomb – on your way in, you were given a miner’s lamp. To see the artworks, you had to focus your lamp on them, moving it around, becoming a participant in the disturbing images.
There was the nice man from Hot Ads who swopped us lollipops when we needed a sugar rush, for sachets of lubricant from Whet, which we used to lure people to sign up for our new weekly sex tip. There was a body painter who painted the most beautiful mythical creatures on her subjects’ bodies – and some of those bodies insisted on stripping down to their piercings for the painting. And there was a creepy, creepy figure in full-body latex, shoes that would rock Naomi Campbell, a wig, a mask and the most extensive Lara Croft breasts. Turned out to be a he, and not a young one either, under all that.
According to the organisers almost all the exhibitors had to restock their shops halfway through the expo and products that sold the most were lingerie, sex toys and DVDs.
People who came to see
Most surprising might have been the array of visitors. One might expect pimps, pervs and weirdos hanging out at an event like this, but in fact, everyone was there - the giggling youngsters, middle-aged couples looking to spice up their love lives, and even the intrigued grandmas and grandpas made an appearance.
“South Africans have been craving something like this,” says Silas Howarth, director of Expo Works. The goal was to make women feel comfortable, he says, “and it succeeded”. Almost half - 49 percent - of the visitors were women. “Visitors were generally happy and excited about it, and people thought the expo was classy, and not sleazy or dark.”
From all angles, this event was an enormous success. Visitors got more than they bargained for, exhibitors sold out their wares, and we learned a lot about what blows people’s hair back.
- (Heather Parker and Wilma van Zuydam, Health24, Updated: May 2008)
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