Q. Tell me more!
A. Well that’s beautifully vague. Let’s go with this, we are a co-operatively run arts event hosted by a collective of independent event producers and creatives. We are focussed on providing an outlet for Erotic Artisans and performers to display and produce their work. We are proud of our creative focus.
Q. Are you affiliated with the Festival Erotique which happened in Edinburgh a few years ago?
A. No. We are an entirely new event focussed on the Erotic Arts. Erotique was a trade fair and lifestyle event run by local industry held in a conference venue and, as such was a very different event. We are in no way affiliated. FEA is genuinely the first event of its kind in Scotland.
Q. So is this a festival of porn then?
A. It is not. Pornography has a pretty strong platform already. The difference between erotic art and pornography is more than mere semantics. We’re not anti-porn however, just pro the erotic arts.
Q. Are there other events like FEA?
A. There are events with a similar focus across the world. The benchmark for such events is the Seattle Festival of Erotic Art which attracts over 10,000 people and has been running for 10 years, Toronto, NYC (Rochester), Detroit, Paris and Berlin have wonderful Erotic Arts focussed events. London also has some great shows featuring visual art and erotica as well as the Erotic Awards and a number of Fetish-focussed weekenders. However whilst we are influenced and inspired by these events, we aim to remain unique and are genuinely the only event of our kind in the UK.
Q. Is your festival degrading to women?
A. Do we live in the 1830s? If someone assumes that erotica and the erotic arts exist only for the pleasure of those with a y chromosome, it says far more about them than our pro-equality, female-run festival. No. Our festival neither degrades women, men; transgender individuals, nor those with no fixed gender assignation. Outdated sexist attitude and gender-based assumptions on the other hand; those we degrade.
Q. Is your Director really a feminist.
A. Yes, of the sex positive variety; but she doesn’t like to talk about it.*
*Unless you ask her, then she does
