GEAR terms

01These terms

These terms cover GEAR on Friday 18 December 2026 at Spectra, 5 Perfecta Road, Paarden Eiland, Cape Town. GEAR is presented by FLTH. Buying a ticket, entering the competition, taking a stall or walking through the door means you accept them.

Our operator and contact details are on the Contact and Operator Details page. The Privacy Policy, site terms and GEAR Swap terms apply alongside these.

GEAR and FLTH share one night, in two parts. GEAR runs from 19:00 to 22:00, is open to all genders, has no dance floor and no play spaces, and runs its own dress code, consent and photography rules. FLTH follows from 22:00 to 03:00 and is a men-only fetish night with its own rules. Your armband shows your ticket. A GEAR ticket gets a green armband. A FLTH ticket gets a choice of a yellow YES SIR or a red NO SIR armband, worn all night. Where anything here differs from a sitewide FLTH policy, these GEAR terms govern the GEAR part of the night.

02Strictly 18+

GEAR is for adults only. Everyone must be 18 or older and valid photo ID is required at the door, whatever you look like. No exceptions, no refund if you cannot produce ID.

03Tickets and prices

Guest tickets are sold through FIXR. Early bird is R150 and general admission is R200. FIXR adds its own booking fee at checkout, so the amount you pay is higher than the face value shown here.

Competition entry is free for your first category and R200 for each extra category, and a stall at the GEAR Market is R300. Both include your entry to GEAR, so neither needs a guest ticket as well.

Competition entries and stalls are applied for, not bought online. We email you the payment details and you pay by EFT. Your place is confirmed when the payment reflects, and places are limited.

Tickets are also sold at the door at R200, subject to capacity on the night. Door entry is not guaranteed.

A GEAR ticket covers GEAR only, from 19:00 to 22:00. A FLTH ticket covers both GEAR and FLTH, subject to FLTH’s men-only entry policy. GEAR tickets bought before the move to 18 December have been upgraded to include FLTH at no extra cost, subject to the same policy.

04Times and last entry

Doors open at 19:00. The competition runs from 20:30 to 22:00 and GEAR ends at 22:00, when FLTH begins. Guests holding a GEAR ticket only leave at 22:00. The GEAR Market trades until midnight at the latest, and GEAR Swap runs until FLTH closes at 03:00.

The published running order is our intention for the night, not a promise. Timings can move.

05Refunds

Tickets are non-refundable except where set out here. FIXR processes guest ticket sales, so FIXR handles those refunds and their terms apply. Booking fees are FIXR’s and are not ours to refund.

If we cancel GEAR you can have a refund of the ticket price. If we move it to another date your ticket is valid for the new date, and you can ask for a refund instead if you cannot make it.

GEAR has moved from 21 November to 18 December. If you bought a GEAR ticket and cannot make the new date, email us for a full refund of your GEAR ticket. If you bought tickets to both GEAR and FLTH, we refund your GEAR ticket in full, because your FLTH ticket now covers both.

Refund requests have a deadline. When we cancel, move or change an event and offer refunds, we contact ticket holders to ask whether they want one. You have one month from the date we contact you to ask for your refund. Once the event has taken place and that month has passed, no refund is due.

Fees for extra competition categories and stall fees are non-refundable, including if you withdraw, do not arrive, or are refused entry.

There is no refund if you are refused entry or removed for breaking these terms, the dress code or the code of conduct.

06Dress code

GEAR is open to any dress code. Come in full gear, in something you put together, in what you wear every day, or nude. Gear is celebrated, not required.

The competition is different. To walk a runway category your look must match that category’s theme, and a look that does not match may be refused a place on the runway.

Nazi, military-insignia and gore-themed looks are not welcome.

FLTH, from 22:00, is different: it has a strict fetish and kink dress code, and the FLTH door may refuse anyone who does not suit the night. A ticket does not override that, and being refused entry to FLTH on the dress code is not refundable.

07Consent and conduct

Ask before you touch anyone, and ask before you touch anyone’s gear. Some pieces are expensive, some are handmade, some carry meaning. A yes to one thing is not a yes to everything.

GEAR is sex-positive but it is not a play event. There are no darkrooms, no play areas and no sex on the premises.

Harassment, intimidation and deliberate boundary violations get you removed, without a refund. If something feels wrong, find a member of the GEAR team.

We may refuse entry to, or remove, anyone who is aggressive, intoxicated or putting others at risk.

08Photography

Guests do not take photographs or video anywhere at GEAR, at any time. Phone cameras are covered at the door. This is the rule we enforce hardest, because many people here are not out and one image can undo that for someone.

Only our appointed professional photographers may photograph at GEAR, and only in two places: the stage during the competition, and the photobooth.

You choose whether you appear. Our photographers shoot the stage and the photobooth only, never the room, so if you stay off the stage and out of the booth, you are not photographed. Two things you opt into yourself: stepping on stage in the competition, and stepping into the photobooth. Entering the competition means accepting that you are photographed on stage. Competitors tell us on the entry form how they want their face handled in published images, and we follow that.

We use GEAR photography to promote GEAR and FLTH. If an image of you is published and you want it removed, email us and we will remove it.

Taking a photograph or video as a guest means being removed immediately, without a refund, and refused entry to future events. We may ask you to delete the material in front of a member of the team.

09The competition

Your first category is free. You may enter more than one category, but each extra category costs R200 and needs a different look. The same look cannot compete twice.

You choose the category you enter. The full categories, scorecard and rules are published on the judging page and form part of these terms.

Places are limited and entering is an application, not a confirmation. We will tell you if you have a place.

Judges score the gear, creativity and presentation. They never score your body, weight, age, muscle, gender expression or conventional attractiveness. The judges’ decisions on category winners, GEAR ICON 2026 and all scoring are final, and we do not enter into correspondence about them.

Prizes are provided as described on the night. Prizes are not exchangeable for cash, and where a prize comes from a third party, that third party’s terms apply to it.

10The GEAR Market

A stall is R300 and includes entry and access to a power supply. Traders bring their own table dressing, setup and lighting.

Space is limited. Applying for a stall does not confirm a stall; we confirm in writing.

Traders sell their own goods under their own terms and are responsible for their own stock, pricing, compliance and tax. FLTH and GEAR are not the seller and are not party to anything you buy at the market.

Traders are responsible for their own goods and equipment at all times.

11GEAR Swap

GEAR Swap is a community exchange with its own terms, which you accept by taking part. Read the GEAR Swap terms before you hand anything over.

12Your belongings

Bring what you are willing to look after. We are not responsible for loss of or damage to personal property, gear or equipment brought to GEAR, except where the law does not allow us to exclude that.

13Risk

You attend GEAR at your own risk. Gear, hardware, heat, low light and a busy room all carry ordinary risks, and you are responsible for your own safety, your own limits and anything you choose to wear or do.

Tell a member of the team if you feel unwell or unsafe.

14Changes to the event

We may change the running order, the line-up, the judges, the categories or any part of the programme. We may cancel or move GEAR, and if we do, the refund position above applies.

The venue has its own rules and its own security, and those apply inside as well.

15Your information

FLTH is the responsible party for the personal information we collect, as that term is used in the Protection of Personal Information Act.

Buying a ticket means FIXR collects your details as the ticket seller, under their own terms. Entering the competition or applying for a stall means we collect what that form asks for, which includes your name, your contact details and your age confirmation, and we use it only to assess your application, run the door list and contact you about GEAR.

Our application forms are hosted on Google Forms, so Google processes that information on our behalf. We keep it no longer than we need it to run the event and our records, we do not sell it, and we do not share it outside the GEAR team except where the law requires it.

You can ask us what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing us. See the Privacy Policy for the full position, including how to complain to the Information Regulator.

16South African law

These terms are governed by South African law. Nothing here is intended to exclude or limit any right or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Consumer Protection Act.