PORTUGAL – Porn stars, adult novelty and lingerie exhibitors, professional dominas, and just plain folk attended Lisbon’s first ever International Erotic Fair held earlier this month. Total attendance during the wildly popular event is estimated to have reached 35,000 people.Event coordinators are ecstatic with the participant numbers, having hoped to attract 25,000 people. In addition to the raw numbers, Juli Simon, director of the fair, expressed delight about the crowd’s demographics, since it is believed that as many as 30% of attendees were female.

“We believe this success has been due to highly assorted content,” Simon explained, “with more than 300 shows daily among casting and erotic shows, BDSM séances, striptease, and conferences about sexuality.”

Given the slow build that the Barcelona Erotic Film Festival has endured during its seven year history, the success of the Lisbon fair is especially impressive.

As well as merchants promoting a wide array of vibrators, lubes, and sexy lingerie, more than 300 journalists from all over Europe, and a wide array of professionals, guests, and adult video performers attended the first-ever Salão Internacional Erótico do Lisboa. Sex celebrities included Nacho Vidal, Julie Silver, Jane Darling, Alicia Rhodes, Haley Page, Celia Blanco, Brigitte Bui, Bibian oray, Claudia Claire, Dunia Montenegro, and Max Cortés. Massage oils, natural aphrodisiacs, dildos, lingerie, and fetish niche videos were especially popular – as was the Club Bizarre, where the dominant Lady Monique de Nemours and Mistress Basia enlightened those assembled with demos of various S/M techniques.

Claire was one of many performers who answered questions from both men and women, as well as signed autographs. “It was fantastic,” she said of the fair. “I hope the Salão contributes to make sexuality in Portugal less of a taboo.”

Claire’s hopes appear to be on their way to fulfillment, since much of the floor space has already been reserved for the second annual Salão Erótico, which is scheduled to take place in Lisbon from July 6 – 9, 2006.