Chris Johns from Jivamukti Yoga Sydney and his fantastic team will be coming up to the festival to provide a sauna sensual sweat throughout the festival. Thanks to him, we'll be able to sweat and swim, which is a great way to cleanse, come back to one's body and find deep relaxation in the midst of it all.

In the oceans of open relationships, we move in the sometimes stormy seas of encounter and group play. As we enter these spaces with our partners, we can experience how our relations can sometimes anchor us or can sometimes burden or inhibit us. In our workshop we invite you to experiment with the possibilities and emotions which come with being in a 'sex positive' space with your partner. We will explore the ways in which your partner can be supportive in this exploration and the problems that can come up. Is it possible to follow our desires, while being seen, held and protected by our partners? Come explore with us to find out.

This workshop has been inspired by the Anchor workshop of Philipp and Sarah Aleihsa at the Xplore Festival 2017

Meet the festival presenters, learn about verbal and body consent, and how best to navigate through the festival. Everyone must attend. The official festival opening will take place at 2pm on Friday 26th January.

Fire is one the four sacred elements. It fascinates people as it can be seen both as a protective or destructive goddess depending on its mood. Fire changes, it may warm up, heat or burn. It is very sensual; it stings and caresses the body. To play with fire without knowing its behaviour is dangerous. But when we learn to manipulate and hypnotise it, it becomes sensual and we may use it for erotic play. This workshop teaches the conditions under which fire can safely be used in sexual play. We learn how to let the flames and fire kiss and caress ourselves and our partners, so we can play with it without fear and risks. The workshop teaches how to domesticate, but still love this goddess ardently.

Imagine acroyoga as a dance where our boundaries are open and flexible. This workshop will explore simple partner acrobatic positions and how we can kink them up. Get ready to get nude as well as to play with your beautiful genitals which are very often underestimated in acroyoga. This workshop requires presence, trust, surrender, playfulness and communication. We will investigate touch and how to direct another person’s body in space.

There is no sex festival worthy of the name without dance, because dance is the royal road of eroticism and seduction. Before becoming a sex educator and tantric therapist, Ron van Twuiver has had an extensive background as a dancer. For this reason we've asked him to lead us into a journey of body awakening and desire through dance.  

Juliette Dragon proposes her own Parisian Bordello with a French touch for an entire evening with burgundy red velvet and mirrors. The Bordello is a fantasy role play structure which gives you the opportunity to explore and learn more about your sexuality. As a client in the bordello, you have permission to ask for what you want on the basis of spoken, mutual consent as the elementary condition for anything that may happen. The structure encourages you to be bold both in what you ask for and also in what you might be willing to provide as a service to another. All participants will have the chance to experience both roles, i.e., that of client and the service provider. There will be no money exchanged, but rather clients will offer a tribute, which the service provider might be willing to accept or not accept.

In this workshop, we will discuss our various personal experiences with breaking rules and punishment, and we will get to play with various possible punishment scenarios.

A lot of the sexiness of sex and BDSM comes from the allure of being bad, of taking the risk of crossing borders of conventional morality and politeness. In this workshop, you’ll have a license to be bad. How bad can you be? How much bad will you allow to be done to you? What finally do you hold to be unacceptable? And why?

Finally, what role does forgiveness play in sexuality and BDSM?

Festivals such as the Sydney Festival of Really Good Sex do not exist in isolation. They belong to a wider social and cultural movement, which contests dominant attitudes towards sexuality, while actively encouraging erotic education and expansion. There is obviously a political impetus behind such events to the extent that they seek to contribute to a culture that is more erotically informed and liberated.

We have invited one of the best riggers in Australia to host the ongoing Shibari installation at the festival. There will be the opportunity to experience lustful and/or painful bondage.
Whether in the air or on the ground.

In this workshop, we will use the expressive form of Butoh to create absurd and fantastical dialogues in the fields of feeling. By dancing we turn into story-tellers whose bodies create an affair of the in-between, clasped by moments of spirituality. We will also become aware that a little taste of dominance and submission can make us more playful.

In this workshop I would like to bring new life to this ancient ritual. Washing each others feet was part of normal life in earlier times, because roads were dusty and shoes expensive. Therefore washing feet was a daily ritual, a sign of respect and esteem for our fellow human beings. It was not only used to clean, but also to heal and to care for the feet, which were sore due to long distance walking. Today feet washing as a ritual has disappeared from daily life. Even the idea of washing feet often causes amazement or astonishment. For the duration of the encounter, a very personal relationship develops between the two persons who interact.

Our feet are both robust and extremely sensitive. 
The torturers in former times used this knowledge to give convicts draconian punishment with a cane on the sole. This punishment was extraordinarily painful, but it didn´t leave any traces.
Even today, the classic "Bastonade" is often used to bring pain through the sole of the foot to the whole body. Foot torture is, however, much more than the simple use of a cane. Torture starts for everyone at a different point. For some of us, tickling may be much more of a torture than anything else. 
This workshop will provide many nasty ideas for different methods of torturing.

The MANGO TEMPLE is a sexy SPA dedicated to this divine fruit. The priestesses of the Temple welcome you for a 90 minute ceremony to honour the cult of the GODDESS - the Feminine power of sweetness, pleasure and letting go.The mango is sacred. The mango is sensual. The mango is the most sexual fruit of all by virtue of its perfume, its texture, its anti-oxydent and aphrodisiac properties, and its energetic, cosmetic, gastronomical qualities.  The mango is sacred. One can lick it, suck it apply it to the face, the body, the genitals and then lick and suck them each one in turn. Massage oneself with it, exfoliate it or simply taste it as a solitary, regenerating and refreshing pleasure.

In this clothing-optional workshop we will experience what it is to slide over, around and on top of each other with massage oil. Liquid Love is a collective experience exploring the sensuality of flowing skin to skin contact. We will begin with dry massage in small groups with your chosen partner or partners. And then once the warm, fine, neutral oil is on your skin, you will have the option of moving in a sea together with others. Liquid love is one of our most popular workshops. We promise you'll love it.

An orgy can be one of the most beautiful things in the world. It can also be not so beautiful, if the people involved in it are inattentive, insensitive and unaware. We will approach the orgy with a beginners' mind. Beginners' mind is a term derived from zen Buddhism. It designates an open mind that is listening and attentive, similar to the attitude of a child who experiences something or someone for the first time. Expect to be nervous, because everyone is, even the most 'experienced'. The orgy is not about achieving anything.

In this experiential workshop we will discover the energy that flows through your body when you are calm and slow instead of excited, goal-oriented and getting ahead of yourself. It is about cultivating the subtle but powerful sensations in your body that arise when you remain attuned to yourself, with attention to the details of the situation as they emerge, moment by moment.

These two little monosyllabic words - “Sex” and “Drugs” - are flashing street signs that hide a multitude of pleasures and sins. They name two taboos, or spot fires, or energetic eruptions in culture and in psyche, places that are not well covered by language no matter how many words we use to dip into them, distort them, warn about them, avoid them, channel them. Yet the existential richness of those experiences can be amplified, sometimes discovered, in evoking them linguistically.

The EroticART Studio will be a place to explore eroticism through creativity. You will have the opportunity to draw, write, read and perform in a curated artistic space that celebrates sexuality and acknowledges the body’s sexual power. 

You have permission to both see and be seen as an object of art, as well as the opportunity to express yourself creatively as an artist in our body positive and sex positive environment. 

This kinky dance workshop incorporates contact improvisation with elements of kink. We will play with domination and submission in dance duos, manipulating another person’s body or acquiescing to someone’s lead. Applying both sensual and forceful touch, there is a world of discovery in committing to a role and allowing our innate creativity to flourish within our boundaries. Expanding our awareness both psychologically and bodily, participants can ride the edges of their experience and find new ways of relating and expressing themselves erotically.

The asylum is a space where you can rest, re-charge and where you have permission even to fall apart, if that's where you're at. The environment will be designed to calm your senses. The asylum will be open throughout the festival. Twice a day skilled and experienced volunteers will be available to listen or simply accompany you through whatever you might be experiencing. Please inquire at the box office if you’re interested to access it.

The journey to paradise begins through the darkest and most taboo part of the body: so teaches one of the greatest literary works of European culture. In the The Divine Comedy  Dante famously exits the circles of hell through the anus of the devil. From a practical point of view, when exploring the anus Jack Morin encourages everyone to make a "no pain ever commitment". This workshop is for those who want to learn skills in giving and/or receiving anal pleasure. We will spend time relaxing with a slow touch around the outside of the anus - 'rosebud' massage. We will teach some techniques of touch to this area of extraordinary sensitivity.

With grace and elegance we will learn how to manipulate and handle the whip, receive and give a various degrees of impact and how to process its intensities. All will be conducted in a safe place of a luscious world in which sensual magic arises.

By breaking down we mean being emotionally unable to cope, feeling overwhelmed, vulnerable, unable to function as one normally does, finding oneself experiencing extreme and unpredictable emotions such as anger, sadness, terror, loathing or fear..."being triggered", as they say. The truth is breaking-down seems to be an inevitable part of the journey towards emotional maturity in the 'sex-positive' milieu. 

In this workshop and in the festival more generally, you will have permission to break down without fear and without shame. We will explore how each of us acts when we break down, how we respond when we witness others breaking down and how we would like others to be with us when this happens, when the infans, the one who can't speak or the wounded child arrives.

This workshop has been inspired by the Orgasm Ceremony of Scandinavian sex educator Pia Struck. It will be an incredible journey into self-pleasure in a sacred ceremonial space with others.  

What causes you pain and are you ready to let it go? In this ritual you connect with the things that are stuck in you and embody them by covering your body with clothes pegs. Sitting there, you can feel the pain you've been causing yourself. Then when it's time you take the pegs off, releasing yourself with a final blistering burst of intensity. 

Fire is sensual and hot. So is kissing. In this playful participatory ritual performance, London Faerie creates a stage where fire and kissing come together in a dynamic flow. And you, the actors, get to perform or to spectate as much as you want.

What sits in the secret chamber of your heart and how can you get in touch with it? Newman invites you to an intimate, sensual space where Peruvian ceremonial cacao helps you access your tender vulnerability. 

Once the secret chamber is open, it’s time to play. From this rich place of tenderness and vulnerability you’ll find yourself making deeper, more intimate, more meaningful connections. In this unique playspace you can discover how intimacy, vulnerability and sensuality meet and enhance each other.

NB: This activity will be part of the Integration, not part of the festival program itself