LMC Vienna – New Board

LMC Vienna 2025
This year’s annual general meeting of the largest Austrian fetish association, the Leather and Motorbike Community Vienna (LMC Vienna), took place in the premises of the Vienna Aids Hilfe on Sunday 9th February. In attendance were 50 voting members as well as a few other interested guests, making matters comfortably quorate from the outset.
The meeting began with a review of the previous year. This took the form of a montage of light-hearted and often quite amusing photographs, which accumulatively showed that, for the association last year, there was a great deal to celebrate: the Queen’s Day on 30th April, which doubles up as a charity event, the Vienna Fetish Spring in May, participation in Vienna Gay Pride in June, the 15th anniversary of the association’s premises, the HardOn Club, on Hamburgerstrasse in August, and Vienna in Black in October. In addition, there were some new events in the HardOn: F’ n D’ nights, which were introduced on Fridays during the autumn, and the Sneakers n’ Sox party, which took place twice in the summer. The main focus, however, is on fetish events: Str!ctly Rubber, Str!ctly Leather, Only Shiny Gear, All Fetish, Army, Skins & Worker, as well as the weekly Str!ct Naked event on Sundays. HardOn is primarily a fetish bar, where fetish clothing is always welcome, is in the foreground and is worn a lot, except, of course, at Str!ct Naked. The flagship of the club’s fetishism is Mr. Fetish Austria, whose election is organized by the club, and the winner crowned during Vienna Fetish Spring – in 2024 it was the very popular Markus.

Also celebrated were the associaton’s many instances of cooperation and collaboration: with Aids Hilfe Wien, which offers tests and advice on sexually-transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, PrEP and PEP every first Wednesday of the month in the Hard On from 4 p.m.; with the Austrian Bear Community, through bi-monthly bear events; with the Austrian Puppies group, which is part of the LMC, through quarterly puppy events; with the Vienna Eagles Rugby Football Club, whose members have performed shows at Athletes Nights, and last but not least the Motorbike Community section, where it all started and which is reflected in the club’s name. The Motorbike Community regularly organizes trips on Sundays and public holidays, and those were reported on by the organizer, Patrick.

LMC-Vienna is not just an association in Vienna, there is also a sister association in Salzburg (LMC-Salzburg), whose President, Gernot, reported in detail on the association’s activities as well as the new challenges to the LGBTQIA+ community that are being posed by the changed political environment in the beautiful city of Mozart’s birth.
Also reported were some new cultural events that were held outside the club premises: for example, the gay-erotic film “Vento Seco – Dry Wind” , at the Spittelberg cinema, and the homo-erotic exhibition “I just want to be a good boy”, by the highly talented and versatile Viennese artist, Lars van Roosendahl, to both of which there was a good turn-out of LMC members. Later, it was discussed whether more fetish-related cultural events should take place outside the club premises, not least in order to make fetish more visible to the public.
There will be even more to celebrate and rejoice in the coming year, as 2025 is the 40th anniversary of the Austrian “Leather and Motorbike Community Vienna”. As a visible sign of this outstanding milestone, the famous Viennese artist, Sepp Engelmaier, presented a draft for an annotated logo, which was unanimously accepted. See photo.
Throughout the meeting, the discussions were lively, engaging, and always good-humoured. After a very enlightening report from the treasurer, Martin, who presented his concerns about the club’s finances with great clarity, the discussion was particularly heated – many of those present wanted to make suggestions! All members expressed their thanks and praise to Martin for his many, not at all enviable and often unappreciated efforts to manage the association’s finances.
Even more exciting was the election of a new management board. For the very first time, members had to make a choice between two self-nominating teams – between a majority of the previous board and an aspiring new team, albeit made up of well-known faces, which was calling itself “Team Fetish”. The latter wanted even more (or perhaps only more black leather?) fetish and more visibility in the wider community. But as this current report makes clear, the club is already very fetish – fetish in all its diversity – and fetish is the reason for its existence. After two passionate appeals to the assembled members – Paul very theatrically for the str!ct fetishists, Helmut very business-like for the status qu