A debaucherous Halloween weekend in Vegas bringing together fans and porn stars in a hotel for fun. What could go wrong?

You could tell AVN’s Halloween party was going to be different than the usual Vegas version of the porn social, where the women sit behind a VIP rope as lines of paying fans drool from a distance until it’s their turn for a hasty word followed by the obligatory selfie snap. Next!

The mingling here was planned as more intimate—with fans paying up to $2,000 to share the hotel as well as the downstairs party. They got what they paid for.

My hotel room at the Artisan Hotel Boutique had Tasha Reign across the hall and Brandy Aniston next door, and both were kind enough to offer me a chance to drop by. I was not the only one to get an invitation. It was a weekend full of unscheduled room parties with a low barrier to entry.

On the official side things were chill, too. Both nights, unless you count her porn star girlfriends and director Brad Armstrong, adult superstar Jessica Drake, the biggest name at the event, mingled freely—compared to the phalanx of hulking security guards that usually shepherd her through the masses at her hosted Vegas events. Any fan that wanted to chat with Drake one-on-one had the chance. “When we get together like this we tend to talk to the people in the industry we know. So, I am making an effort to move around and meet everyone,” Drake said.

It took some effort at first.

Things started off a bit shaky on Friday. The small dingy hotel off the Vegas strip with reproductions of European Masterpieces—meet at the Mona Lisa then over to the Renoir, turn left and the party is in the Rembrandt room—plastered all over the walls and ceilings fell somewhere between hipster and sketchy. In this tiny space, the mixing between porn stars and fans should have been easy without any separation. But at first, in that way of high school dances, the porn girls sat on one side of the room and the fanboys on the other. Jessica Drake was a great icebreaker.

Other problems. Officials nixed the topless pool party and there was much discussion of how naughty a costume could be. Way too much was made of the unacceptable cleavage view from Jessica Drake’s pasty-covered Mermaid outfit. She added necklaces. Still, at one point it seemed Vegas PD might make an unexpected cameo to examine Drake’s chest area for sufficient coverage, but eventually common sense won out.

But all these trivialities were forgotten as the factions began mingling. Maybe it was what Dana Dearmond praised as AVN’s skill at keeping the alcohol flowing, but the conversations were at a level fans usually don’t hear. This was more how porn stars talk among themselves when civilians aren’t around.

“Are you dressed as a prolapse?” porn star Adriana Chechik asked one porn director while standing in the lobby, to the delight of nearby fans. Another, Brandy Aniston, showed effortless skill at gathering a long stream of saliva at her lip before withdrawing it again into her mouth. She did this three times to increasingly excited attention. “I’m good with spit,” she said with a shrug. The fans were pleased.

On a couch in the lobby a porn star was seeking advice loudly from another performer over her having double-booked a scene. “Oh, tell him you have a yeast infection. That always works.” This led to the subject of a three-way one porn star had arranged recently for her boyfriend with another performer: “She said she had her period. And, I was like, ‘Bitch, don’t you have a sponge?’ I am like a guy with this stuff.”

Listening nearby a fan named Dan (who would not even say where he is from) tells me this is the most amazing conversation he has ever heard.

Maybe it’s because the porn stars forgot the fans were even there? And not just because of the drinking. Again, the top price for the full weekend was $2,000, and there were almost certainly far fewer fans than perhaps organizers expected. I could not find one person who paid the full amount for the weekend. And, while AVN would not release paid attendance for the event, the PR team proudly noted there were over 80 porn stars on hand.

The porn stars told me they had been paid a range of $1,000-$1,600 for attendance. So at the VIP pool parties and dinners, the performers outnumbered the fans—meaning that the few fans present were having a blast. Perhaps too much of a blast.

“The first night I got solicited for prostitution a bunch of times and I did not enjoy that very much,” DeArmond said.

While Ashley Fires noted: “This one guy was like how much for a one-on-one? How much for us just to go up to your room?” The fan salesmen even offered his lack of stamina in the pitch according to Fires, “He was like, ‘I won’t even take long. How much do you want?’”

Every interaction wasn’t this shady, however. Fires added of another encounter: “I met a fan and he said he bought a ticket just to meet me, so I sat down with him at dinner and he knew things from years ago in my career and that is great. It is great when they know who you are and call you by name. That means something.”

Despite the low attendance and the constant solicitation, Fires hopes AVN does this next year. “It is a party atmosphere so it is a great way to get to know your favorite adult star. First year it is always hard to get the word out, but everyone loves this. There will be more fans next time.”

Fires and I finish this interview around 2 a.m. Sunday and head back to the still-raging party. We had gone to my room for quiet to tape.

She turns to me and abruptly says, “I am so sorry, were you hitting on me back in your room? Because you need to be really straightforward or I can’t tell at all.”

It was, of course, just an interview. “I was being a professional. I would never do that,” I reply.

Fires then hugs me. “I hope I didn’t embarrass you. Try for adventure next time, Richard. Anything can happen. That is what the fans know.”

The elevator door opened and she was gone.