Controlled craziness the norm at Fetish & Fantasy Halloween Ball

Let's just take a look at some of the craftier costumes people have worn over the years to the Fetish & Fantasy Halloween Ball, which returns Saturday to the Hard Rock Hotel.

SNEAKY COSTUMES: Some men have wrapped themselves in boxes adorned with signs reading, "Free Mammograms." Women walk up and put their chests inside holes in the boxes.

EXTRAVAGANT COSTUMES: A partyer once wore a 15-foot-long alien costume featuring dreadlocks and a fire extinguisher for a mouth.

SOCIAL COSTUMES: Guys showed up as a green Army brigade. They placed green mats on the ground and posed on them, just like Army Men.

AND USEFUL COSTUMES: Some people have dressed as Breathalyzers, equipped with working Breathalyzers to keep partyers from driving drunk.

So you see, the Fetish & Fantasy Halloween Ball isn't just a parade of nearly naked people. You can simply show up in cowboy gear, if you prefer. The word "Fetish" doesn't equal "swinger orgies" or anything of the sort.

In fact, no nudity or "lewd activity" is allowed. A dress code posted at the event's site, HalloweenBall.com, outlaws displays of genitals and costume weapons, for starters.

But Saturday's ball is not Disneyland.

Many people will be in leather and lingerie. Paid performers include fire-breathers and Cirque-esque athletics. This year offers more special effects, video projections, lasers, pyrotechnics and sexy dancers.

And if revelers want to break from those particular shenanigans going on inside The Joint, they can walk down the venue's hallway to adjoining ballrooms for sideshow mischief.

In one of those ballrooms, partyers can ride a mechanical banana (a mechanical bull, but a banana instead of a bull), and they can take photos of themselves with the Human Petting Zoo featuring performers painted as lions and such.

Yet another adjoining ballroom will be filled with DJs playing musical mashups, disco and hip-hop.

But The Joint is the main space, filled with contemporary house music from DJs Donald Glaude, Scooter & Lavelle, Bad Boy Bill, Rob, Hollywood, Shortee and - in the middle of the morning - Headhunterz.

Event videographers and photographers will be filming, so if you don't want to be identified, then wear a mask or makeup.

But usually at the F&F Ball, people want to be seen and photographed. Men usually know other people want to pose with their scantily clad dates for photos.

This is the 17th year. The first F&F Ball was held in a retail store, downtown's The Attic. But it was so popular, it moved to the Tropicana the next year.

The ball has been recession-proof, drawing a capacity 7,000 people to the Hard Rock two years ago. In 2001, a month after 9/11, when the Strip was beginning a downturn, the line to get into the event at Utopia stretched down the street.

This year's 7,200 capacity is already close to sell-out numbers, though some tickets should still be available through Ticketmaster ($88 plus fees) and via Halloweenball.com.

Locals get $10 discounts (and no service fees) at Halloweenmart, and they can snare special discount tickets from promoters around town. Tickets cost $100 at the door. But if you arrive after 1 a.m., tickets drop to $44 plus fees. The event runs till about 4 a.m.

If you go, expect controlled craziness. As an F&F Ball promoter jokes, at previous balls there has been at least one wedding conducted on the premises, plus a few unannounced divorces.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.