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Sydney Festival of the Art of Love


Festival of the Art of Love

 "There is nothing more truly artistic

than to love people."

Vincent van Gogh

How do you cultivate love in your life? How do you see the love that is already there? What makes you feel that you are loved?

How can we give freedom to ourselves and others, without losing the support that makes us feel grounded and able to flourish?

The Sydney Festival of the Art of Love is a new two day festival to explore these questions in the diversity and richness of sex-positive relationships. The festival will take at the Leela Centre on 13-14th April, 2nd Floor, 113-115 Oxford Street, (Corner of Crown Street), Darlinghurst NSW 2010. There will be a program of 20 workshops, installations, ceremonies and play party. Book Now.

Our Workshops, Ceremonies and Parties

Featured
The Beauty of Subtlety with Jacqueline Hellyer (11:30-1pm)
The Beauty of Subtlety with Jacqueline Hellyer (11:30-1pm)

It can be in in the smallest, most subdued, barely there moments that the greatest ecstasy can be felt. In a world where bigger, louder, faster reigns surpreme, where if something is good more must be better, we can miss the beauty of the subtle. In this experiential workshop we’ll be exploring what’s teetering on the edge, what hides in the muted, what lies in the spaces in-between…

The Opening Ceremony (9:30-11am) (Everyone Must Attend)
The Opening Ceremony (9:30-11am) (Everyone Must Attend)

Meet the festival presenters, learn about verbal and body consent, and how best to navigate through the festival. 

The Decision Between Us with Paul Walker
The Decision Between Us with Paul Walker

How can we make a decision together without knowing who is leading and who is following? How can we share an encounter where the decision is made between us? In this movement-based workshop, the ways that consent is negotiated without words.

Acts of Service as Acts of Love with Gideon Payten-Griffiths
Acts of Service as Acts of Love with Gideon Payten-Griffiths

Through acts of service, we can find our own deep pleasure and mutual gratitude. Allowing yourself to purely receive these acts can also involve crossing some personal thresholds and that surrender allows the deep pleasure of having your needs satisfied and being touched by another, physically and emotionally.

The Sacred Art of Lingam Worship with Marion Ellyard
The Sacred Art of Lingam Worship with Marion Ellyard

This workshop is about creating the space for a man (or one who has a cock) to surrender and receive love. Lavishing attention on the cock of your choice …(be it an actual cock or an energetic one).

Desire and Dance with Ron van Twuiver (11:30-1pm)
Desire and Dance with Ron van Twuiver (11:30-1pm)

There is no art of love festival worthy of the name without dance, because dance is the royal road of eroticism and seduction. The workshop is a journey of body awakening and desire through dance.  

Confronting Fear with Peter Banki, Ph.D.
Confronting Fear with Peter Banki, Ph.D.

Fear is not the opposite of courage. In fact, very often the two go together. Often we are not even aware that we are frightened of something, or the extent to which fear is in the driver's seat in so many important aspects of our lives. Fear is not necessary bad, it is there to protect us, but sometimes the protection prevents us from taking beautiful risks.   

Friendship with Peter Banki, Ph.D & Sebastian Job, Ph.D
Friendship with Peter Banki, Ph.D & Sebastian Job, Ph.D

In this workshops we will think about the state of friendship today; how the lines between friendship and work are often blurred today, the question of friendship across differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, how social media has changed friendship, the friend-enemy, how much you rely on friends. fighting and rivalry among friends.

Loving Absence with Peter Banki, Ph.D.
Loving Absence with Peter Banki, Ph.D.

What is our affective relationship with absence? So often we think about love in terms of presence, but in truth there is no love without separation, distance and even grief (in both senses). In this workshop, we will explore how absence is not necessarily a negative thing, how it can be cultivated romantically and erotically.

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Negotiating Sex within Love with Jacqueline Hellyer

“Can you have wicked sex with someone you love?”  In fact, can you have any sex other than the tamest vanilla version with a long-term loving partner? It’s a fraught area that leaves so many couples stuck within very limited ‘safe’ boundaries of sexual relating.

In this experiential and discussion-based workshop Jacqueline will lead couples though processes that allow them to develop the skills and understandings that enable constant negotiation and through that ongoing sexual growth within a loving relationship.

Silent Play Party with Live Music
Silent Play Party with Live Music

In the silent play party light and sound create a more concentrated atmosphere for individual, couple and collective play. It will also possible to go into the Silent Space and not play, just be.

Loving Play with Words with Sarah Roffey
Loving Play with Words with Sarah Roffey

Words can be powerful in wooing lovers, in love letters and during erotic and sexual encounters. Words and poetry continue to play a role in love and relationships, to excite, entice, tease and penetrate minds and bodies. Have you ever become aroused by an word or a phrase uttered by someone? What kinds of words? What would you love a lover to whisper into your ear or breathe into your mouth?

The Sacred Art of Yoni Worship with Marion Ellyard
The Sacred Art of Yoni Worship with Marion Ellyard

This workshop is about creating the space for a woman (or one who has a vulva) to surrender and receive love. Lavishing attention on the yoni of your choice …(be it an actual or an energetic one).

Taking and Being Taken with Ron van Twuiver
Taking and Being Taken with Ron van Twuiver

Allow yourself to tap in your own predatory instincts, however taboo that might seem. It is a place for your to discover who and what you really want and what gives you pleasure!

The Beast with Two Backs with Paul Walker and Gideon Payten-Griffiths
The Beast with Two Backs with Paul Walker and Gideon Payten-Griffiths

The Beast With [Two] Backs by Paul Walker and Gideon Payten-Griffiths is an evolving body of research and material with a choreographic core fused with live-art, theatre, participatory and installation elements. The work seeks to distill the physical acts of sex into performative expressions, celebrating sex as shame-free pleasure, as play and as a creative/artistic act.

Our Presenters and Performers

Earlier Event: April 6
Canberra Sexlab
Later Event: May 26
A Week-end of Sex and Philosophy (Frankfurt, Germany)

What We Believe In

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EMBODIMENT

Partner with your body and your breath every day!

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RESPECT

Make requests, never demands! Resist all forms of coercion - especially self-coercion.

DIVERSITY

Vive la différence! Celebrate the differences in people and their tastes.

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COURAGE

Partner with your fears! Let them teach you courage and strength.

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AESTHETICS & PHILOSOPHY

Cultivate the erotic artist in you! And dare to reflect on what you are doing and why!

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PLAY AND MISCHIEF

Add some spice to it! Stay true to who and what turns you on! And be free!