Passion is a European BDSM and fetish fair held annually in Hamburg — by its own description more than a trade fair: an intense community experience in an open, tolerant atmosphere. Where a club night is about the party, Passion is about the craft and the community around it.

The floor is filled by European makers and vendors of handmade fetish items and BDSM equipment — clothing, toys, furniture and gear sold by the people who build it. Around the stands runs a programme of stage shows and workshops, and the fair days are followed by evening parties, so a visit stretches from browsing and learning in the afternoon into the night.

The fair typically runs across a full weekend — a Friday afternoon opening, a long Saturday and a Sunday finish — in one of Hamburg's exhibition halls. It has run for several editions and has established itself as one of the fixed points in the northern European BDSM calendar, drawing visitors and vendors from across the continent.

Passion is organised by M&A Messemanagement. Dates, hall details and tickets for the current edition are published on the fair's own site, passion-messe.com — see the edition page here for this year's specifics, and browse our Hamburg guide for the city's venues.