Baltimore has been chosen to be the host city for a large fetish gathering that previously was held in southern Pennsylvania and will be coming to Maryland for the first time this spring.Bears, Bikers & Mayhem is the name of the event, which was launched in 2011 and last took place in 2023 in Ge ttysburg, Pennsylvania. It has drawn up to 1,500 people in the past.The 440-room Lord Baltimore Hotel at 20 W. Baltimore St. will be the site of the four-day gathering, which begins May 29 and ends June 1. “This year marks an exciting milestone as we proudly bring BBM to the heart of downtown Baltimore,” organizers announced on the event’s website. “New City! New Venue! New Events!” they say on marketing materials.BBM is part of a wave of fetish conventions that are increasingly meeting in mainstream hotels in major cities around the country. New Orleans and Los Angeles have DomCon, gatherings that feature dominatrices such as Mistress Cyan and Madame Margherite. Louisiana also has Naughty N’Awlins, a lifestyle convention for kinky couples and swingers. Atlanta has Eroticon, for practitioners of ENM (Ethical Non-Monogamy.)For LGBTQ kinksters, Washington, D. C. has the annual Mid-Atlantic Leather (MAL) convention. Chicago has International Mr. Leather (IML). Cleveland has Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend (CLAW). Fort Lauderdale has Lauderdale Tropical Bear Week.Baltimore has largely missed out on these large gatherings other than a few events for Furries – adults with a strong interest in anthropomorphic animals — but not anymore. With BBM, it’s joining the ranks of cities that are welcoming LGBTQ kinksters and their disposable incomes. The event is expected to boost the local economy by bringing hundreds of visitors to the city for four days of parties, dances and revelry.Blurring the linesBears, Bikers & Mayhem bills itself as “the first large event in the U.S. to combine the Bear, Leather, Fetish, Motorcycle and Puppy Communities.” It’s a project of a non-profit called Rainbow Sidekick Inc., and its co-producers are Chuck King and Rich Wertman.BBM is open to all but mainly geared toward men. What sets it apart from gatherings that may focus on one group, such as Bears, is that it offers events and activities for a wide range of participants – a Whitman’s Sampler approach. The event in Baltimore will include live entertainment; dances; parties (social, cigar, play); and a vendors’ mart. It will have a “BBM University,” with classes and demonstrations, and two contests, the Mr. Mayhem Leather and Mr. Mayhem Leather Bear competitions. Scheduled entertainers include comedian Zach Noe Towers; musician John Flynn; drag performer Brooklyn Heights; and DJs Deanne and Tony Ruiz with Vince Christopher and DJ Joey.There will be excursions to the National Aquarium; the American Visionary Art Museum; Horseshoe Casino; the Hampden and Fells Point neighborhoods; and Mustang Alley’s, a 12-lane bowling alley, bar and bistro. Additional options include a wine tasting tour and a cigar and whiskey tour. The Orioles are playing in town (against the Chicago White Sox) that weekend, too.“If you are a Bear, you will most definitely find all of the elements of any great bear event,” the BBM website explains. “Likewise for Leather men and fetish men – everything you hope to find at any great leather or fetish event is also part of BBM. For many of us, we are a part of several or all of these communities and not just one of them. The BBM difference is that our fun, food, frivolity & camaraderie also blur the lines between these communities.”The Lord Baltimore is owned by Rubell Hotels, which has a reputation for supporting LGBTQ events, and the entire hotel will be reserved for BBM except for one group of rooms that were previously committed to flight attendants. The neighboring Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore at 2 N. Charles Street is the designated overflow hotel.“We’re thrilled to announce the partnership with the Lord Baltimore Hotel as our distinguished host,” BBM’s website states. “Very few hotels are as accepting as The Lord Baltimore, and we are lucky to be one of their premiere events.”The 23-story, French Renaissance-style hotel is an attraction in itself. Dating from 1928 and fully restored, it has a reputation as one of the most haunted hotels in the country, with guests and staffers claiming to see ghostly figures and other signs of paranormal activity on the mezzanine above the lobby and elsewhere.On National Ghost Hunt Day in late September, the management hosts an event that gives visitors an opportunity to investigate the hotel with members of the Baltimore Paranormal Society. For BBM, large suites will be converted to spaces for play parties, and a rooftop terrace will be the setting for an afternoon tea dance. Volunteer effortRainbow Sidekick is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and BBM is an all-volunteer effort.King said the event moved after its longtime base, the 307-room Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center in Gettysburg, changed management and declined to continue booking the event in May, when it usually occurred. He said the hotel offered dates in March, but the organizers were concerned about the weather at that time of year and passed.Chuck King, co-producer of Bears, Bikers & Mayhem. Photo courtesy Chuck King.King, who lives in Florida and serves on Rainbow Sidekick’s board, said his team considered other cities before deciding on Baltimore. “We looked at everywhere from Frederick (Maryland) to D. C. to Baltimore to Harrisburg (Pennsylvania),” he said. “We even looked at Philadelphia.”BBM traditionally has had numerous participants from Baltimore, including recent Mr. Mayhem Leather Bear contest winner David Sugar, and moving there offered a chance to grow in a bigger city, he said. “There’s a lot of leather clubs in the Baltimore-Washington region,” he said.  “It made sense for us, instead of moving far away and trying to rebuild.”He’s also personally familiar with the city and likes it.“I lived in Baltimore for six to seven years and ran a business there,” he said. “My ex and I were the ones who reopened the Baltimore Eagle 10 years ago or something like that. Baltimore is a great town. It has tons of culture to it, very unique little communities that are kind of all smooshed together. It’s a great place, a great food scene. There are great visitor things to do. I love Baltimore. I have friends there. It’s a great place, great people.”One sponsor for the event is the local motorcycle club COMMAND MC, whose letters stand for Corps of Marylanders Making a Noticeable Difference. Other 2025 sponsors and collaborators include local bars Leon’s of Baltimore, Mixers and The Club Car; the District Eagle; the Wilton Manors Eagle; Eagle Leathers of Wilton Manors, Lauderdale Tropical Bear Week, Rainbow Sidekick and the Lord Baltimore Hotel. Affordability factorBesides being close to major airports and accessible by Amtrak, Baltimore is generally seen as a more affordable city than Washington and Philadelphia, and BBM is leaning into that distinction.BBM offers run packages at three price levels — VIP for $430; Gold for $295 and Silver for $227. All of the packages include some meals, from two with the Silver package to six plus complimentary bar service during certain events with the VIP package.The website also lists day passes for Friday and Saturday and other a la carte offerings for those who want to come for part of the time but not necessarily all weekend. A la carte items include passes to the Thursday Night Welcome Dance Party; Friday Night and Saturday Night play parties and dance parties; the Saturday tea dance; and a Sunday Brunch and Show.Rooms at the host hotel are priced starting at $179 per night for double occupancy, the same rate charged by the Gettysburg hotel.“It’s still cheaper than going to IML or MAL or any of those other events,” King said. “The packages all include meals. Some of them only include one or two meals. Some of them include all the meals…If [attendees] don’t want to have any meals, they can just get a pass that will allow them to go to all the events and still enjoy themselves and not have to worry about spending a ton of money on food in the hotel…It’s quite a difference in affordability.”King said the organizers had planned to hold BBM at the Hunt Valley Inn in Baltimore County in 2024 but that hotel closed abruptly, causing the event to be cancelled that year and prompting the move to downtown Baltimore and the Lord Baltimore.After considering several hotels, both downtown and in the suburbs, “the Lord Baltimore just seemed a lot more ready to work with us and let us do our thing,” King said. “They trust us. And the sales director there, I’ve worked with him in the past. He knows exactly what to expect. There are no surprises. It just seemed like the best fit.” ‘A very different experience’Bears, Bikers & Mayhem was started by King and Bill Hugo in York, Pennsylvania, as the first annual run of the Susquehanna Valley (SV) Bears. From its inception, the SV Bears envisioned BBM as the first national event that would bring together the Bear, Leather and Fetish communities. That’s why BBM claims to be the first event to combine those three groups.For the first two years, 2011 and 2012, BBM was held at the Red Roof Inn in York. By its third year, BBM had outgrown the Red Roof Inn and moved 30 miles west to the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg. As a full-service hotel and conference center, the Eisenhower offered more space for added events and parties. Over the years, organizers expanded the vendors’ mart and added a pool party, leather contests and off-site tours. BBM wasn’t held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.    While BBM is open to everyone, King said, play parties are limited to those who identify as a man.“We’re the first event that incorporated the leather scene, the bear scene, the motorcycle enthusiasts, the fetishists. But it’s all geared toward those who identify as a man,” he said. “That means trans people, that means everybody that fits to that mold. We certainly welcome women to come to the event. We just don’t allow them in the play spaces, essentially. Those are men-only identifying spaces. But everyone’s welcome to come. It’s attractive to anyone in the leather or bear community. We do a lot. We have education classes. We have great entertainment. The food we’ll have at the Lord Baltimore is a huge step up from the Gettysburg hotel. I think the experience and the camaraderie just doesn’t compare to anything else. It’s a very different experience.”The blending of people with many different interests at one event is what makes it so unusual, he said.“You’ll find rubber people. You’ll find leather people. You’ll find bears. You’ll find leather bears. You’ll find all of that. It’s a great mix.” ‘Giving back’As the project of a non-profit, BBM raises money to support HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ and other charities. Past beneficiaries have included the Pride Festival of Central Pa.; Keystone State Gay Rodeo Association; Hagerstown Hopes; Rainbow Railroad, National Center for Transgender Equality; Project Lazarus; the Chase Brexton LGBT Aging Program; and Equality Florida (the Pulse Nightclub Victims Fund). King said the 2025 recipients will be announced after the event but groups in Pennsylvania will definitely be included – one way of “giving back” and maintaining ties with people and organizations that were part of BBM when it was held there.King said he’s hoping to see 1,000 or more registrants in Baltimore, and he noted that BBM regularly sold out the Eisenhower Hotel. He said BBM has a contract to return to the Lord Baltimore in 2026, and it will be the second weekend in May next year. If this year goes well, he said, BBM may extend beyond that. “We would like this to be our permanent move. That was the point of going to Baltimore,” he said. “Maybe this will be a way to help build the gay scene a little bit more and attract more people to the city.”More information about BBM is available from the event website, www.bearsbikersandmayhem.com; on Facebook at Bears, Bikers & Mayhem; on X @BearBikerMayhem and on Instagram @bearsbikersmayhem. ...read more read less