Mid Atlantic Leather 2010

Peter Schwartz & Rick Weber @ MAL.
By: Kinky Brothers

Hundreds of leathermen and some leatherwomen descended on Washington DC for the annual MAL (Mid Atlantic Leather) weekend over the Martin Luther King holiday. If you weren’t there, you missed a great opportunity to hang and party with some of the hottest leathermen. The weekend was hosted by the Centaurs Motorcycle Club of DC and they celebrated their 40th anniversary. The highlight of the weekend was the selection of the Mid Atlantic Leather titleholder at their contest Sunday afternoon.

The weekend consists of various parties within the event and parties hosted by outside promoters. Many other events also took place, such as parties for cigar, uniform, fisting, puppies, and sports gear aficionados. There were plenty of private play parties happening in the hotel rooms, but one would need to be enticed into those, which isn’t too hard to do. The Washington Plaza hotel staff was very much on alert as to the hot & nasty activities happening in the hall ways and stairwells. Most socialized and cruised the hotel lobby, which is always fun like a kid in a candy store. It is here where local NYC leathermen were spotted being socially naughty: Rick Weber, Peter Swhartz, Jake Keary, and Preacher (all are Mr. Eagle NYC titleholders).

Six contestants competed for the coveted title of Mid Atlantic Leather and Matt Bamford, Mr. Capital Pride Leather, out shined them all. Matt goes on to compete at International Mr. Leather (www.IMrL.com) end of May in Chicago. David Dean, Mr. Pittsburgh Eagle Leather 2009 came in 1st Runner-up and Jeff Jarnigan, Mr. SECC Leather 2009, was awarded the 2nd Runner-up title. The audience was disappointed when the contestants walked out onto the stage in black Unico boxer briefs instead of the traditional leather jockstrap. The nightclub hosting the contest had been raided recently for indecent exposure, so the contestants couldn’t expose their butts on stage. KeniMattix (www.kenimattix.com), a superb acrobatic duo, entertained the crowd as they balanced on each other’s bulging muscles making beautiful configurations. You may recognize Matthew of the duo. He was the acrobat performer fired from Cirque du Soleil for being HIV+.

This is also the weekend that International Mr. Leather executives announce the prestigious judging panel for the coming year. The press conference was held Saturday afternoon at noon in the hotel conference room. Several current titleholders who are competing at IML 2010 were in attendance as each judge was announced. One of New York's club promoters and leather scene socialite, Robert Valin, was named to the IML judging panel for this coming May. He will sit alongside eight other judges to choose the next Intl. Mr. Leather.

This was the last year the Washington Plaza hosted MAL. In the past, many attendees who couldn’t get into the hotel or found it to be too pricy booked at various surrounding hotels in Thomas Circle. The Capital Hyatt will now be the new host hotel beginning next year. The larger hotel will be able to accommodate all MAL attendees and all MAL events will be in the hotel ballrooms. No more transportation buses to deal with or walking through cold weather and rain, although DC is leather weather.

Leather Cocktails is the center piece of the weekend. This is how MAL started. A group of leathermen gathered in full on leather gear to have cocktails. It grew from that gathering to the huge event it is today. Traditionally the attire is formal leather to attend Leather Cocktails, but many didn’t get the memo that it’s a formal leather event. Many showed up to the event wearing such items as a leather apron exposing his ass; sleeveless T-shirt with ripped jeans; jockstrap and chest harness; and then some. Seeing this standing in line for the meat cutting station and surrounding the bowl of cocktail shrimp was not amusing. Maybe the hotel stairwell would have been more appropriate.

Book your reservations for Mid Atlantic Leather 2011 weekend at www.LeatherWeekend.com and I will see you in the hotel stairwells. Oooops…I mean the hotel lobby.