I’d heard things start late in porn – but pulling up in an uber to the Theater Amsterdam two and a half hours after the XBIZ Europa awards show was meant to start and seeing the thronging crowd out front, surely that meant I’d missed it. Surely? Waiting in line for the red carpet to have their photo papped, a glammed up performer with an impressive amount of lip filler tells me “oh no – it hasn’t even started!”

Occurring for the first time in Amsterdam, XBIZ Europa is the Oscars for on-camera orgies. Some 1000 spicy content creators have flown in from across the world for the 3 day Xbiz conference to meet, network and shoot collabs in the rooms of the opulent Park Centraal Hotel – all culminating in the awards show that spotlights ‘the best in the business of pleasure.’

From Most Innovative Sex Toy to Best Lesbian Sex Scene – it’s an eclectic mix of award categories, with names like SinfulXXX.com flashing up on the big screen so often you fast become unphased. It’s an environment where sexuality is normalized and celebrated. One speaker accepting an award statuette says ‘we bring pleasure into people’s lives and that’s something we should all be proud of.’

Industry legend Stoya presented the Best Newcomer Award in a handsomely tailored suit and champion of feminist porn, Erika Lust, took home Feature Movie of the Year for her film The Wedding. It’s a wild and glitzy mix with independent onlyfans creators asserting their place amongst the glossier American-run mega platforms.

The event reflects many of the discussions and issues that played out at the Xbiz conference over the 3 days prior in the lead up to the awards. In the porn world, Onlyfans is now king, and it’s led to a swath of new content creators who can shoot their own material in their bedrooms and can be their own boss. Unsurprisingly the attendees of the conference were largely divided along gender lines, with polo shirt wearing tech bros heading up the ‘back end’ of production, while female performers whizzed into conference talks before hitting the streets to make the most of the Instagrammable canals of Amsterdam.

With stalls from Brazzers and Pornhub serving up free champagne and goodies, one stall showcased a VR headset that allows you to put your porn inside a custom designed building in the metaverse, another is handing out stuffed toys that you could give to a child so long as you cut off the tag on the side that says ‘Jerkmate.’ 

Many issues within the industry are plain to see – I arrive at one panel to hear from Paulita Pappel, a feminist porn producer from Berlin who runs a porn production company called Hardwerk, but predictably she’s talked over and drowned out by the other men on the panel – hard work to get a word in.

Consent was a strong theme in many of the discussions, with a lot of emphasis put on paperwork to ensure consent for the sex acts playing out on camera is attained, as well as ensuring that everyone is thoroughly tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Intimacy coordinators and translators onset are becoming more common, but when an audience member asked a panel of producers what they do with performers who violate consent onset, this seemingly simple question stumps the mostly male panelists. As the discussion became heated the MC swiftly moved the conversation on to the next question, parking this concern for another day. 

On day 2 of the conference, many of the American tech bros had taken off to another conference in Cyprus, leaving the European content creators to mix and mingle amongst themselves. Clusters of creators from Barcelona, Berlin and Budapest had the chance to shine. Each with their own vibe, these pockets of community have been forged through collaboration. Many do what’s called ‘content share’ – appearing in each other’s work for free so they can both post and tag each other and make the most from each other’s audiences. 

The European makers have a more progressive and less showy approach to porn making, a more gentle luster than the bombastic swagger of the Americans. Rooted in social and political issues – many are using porn as the vessel to share their message. One pair of onlyfans creators from Barcelona have made unshaved armpit and pubic hair their niche, and some undercut strutting self-professed ‘queerdoes’ from Berlin have made the ethics and feminism of their work the key selling point of their offering. 

As the content creators take center-stage, the atmosphere changes and the tone becomes more confessional. An A-listers panel saw some shocking stories shared of first-time experiences working on a professional porn set. One panelist’s advice “Don’t do anal on a pool table on your first shoot.” It’s awkward to see such shocking experiences laughed off. Greenshoots are pushing through though, Pineapple Support, an organization formed to provide free mental health to those in the porn business, made its presence felt with a number of speakers and panels to highlight what they offer. 

By the keynote though, the lack of aircon in the hot-box conference rooms had started to take its toll, leaving only about a dozen or so stragglers wilting in the heat.

Back at the porn awards the girls sitting next to me have now got bored, one of them sneaks out to get the wifi password from front-desk and proceeds to casually scan naked photos of Mr. and Mrs. Creampie, porn star idols of hers, that she’d met over the week. Nobody in the aisle behind her is phased, and she casually scrolls on to look at shoes.

When the champagne had run dry and the final award had been given out, hosts Danny D and Jia Lissa returned to the stage to close out the evening. 

“Wow, what a night! Thank you all for cumming!”

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