Q. When was the munch started & how many people attended.
The 1st Manchester Munch was held on Saturday February 7th 1998. This is from a posting about it to uk.people.bdsm newsgroup. "Last Saturday afternoon (7th February) we held a munch under the #submissionuk IRC channel banner in a pub near Manchester.
About a dozen people came (thanks :) travelling from as far as Glasgow
and London on the day, although most were from the Manchester and South
Yorkshire area. Tanos and Tiana were the organisers.
Q. Where was the munch started?
The pub was
called the Rope and Anchor in Warrington. It was chosen as it had easy
access from Motorways, was out of town, and was a family orientated pub
so very safe feeling for people to walk into, especially females on
their own.
Q. When did you Duncan (Lord-James) become involved.
In 2000 Tanos ducked out and then Tiana and Duncan ran a couple of munches together and then Duncan began running them on his own.
Q. When did it move to Via (formerly Via Fossa)?
The Munch continued to be at the Rope and Anchor, then on 29th August 1998 it was held at the Balearica
cafe/bar in Charles Street to coincide with the Mardi Gras weekend.
September and October 1998's Munches were back at Rope and Anchor.
November 1998
munch (14th November) was held at Via Fossa.( think we'd had to cancel
the munch initially for some reason, and Stu was instrumental in
finding the new venue) It was decided to hold it there from then on.
The first few were held in the upstairs area until we outgrew it and
moved down to the basement.
It was
organised on the second Saturday to co-incide with Lash, which at that
stage was being held at The Arches on the 2nd Saturday of the month.
Q.I know of three venues I have used, Via, Cathedral Arches and Moon Bar. How many others have there been?
As far as I can remember just the Rope and Anchor and the Balearica (as mentioned above)
Q. Any other interesting bits you can tell me?
The very first munch held at Via Fossa was upstairs. This is from a post Tanos made after the event on 14th November 1998-
"We thought Via Fossa, was great for munches. tiana was feeling very comfortable
and
it was all going great until she tripped on the stairs and sprained her
ankle. She's now esconced on my sofa, with her crutches from A&E
propped up beside her, peering at the screen wondering what I'm typing
about her...
Before she
tripped, she did get time to talk to the manager and spelled out what
BDSM stands for. He's fine about us meeting there in the future, with
prominent collars etc etc just as long as there's no scening (which is
fine because its only a munch after all) but most
importantly, he doesn't mind us advertising Via Fossa along with the munch."
