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Britain's Swingathon festival attracts thousands [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-07-21
More than 1,000 people reportedly attended Swingathon, Britian's largest such event, over the weekend. In its fifth year, the festival has outgrown its original location and moved out of local villagers' earshot.
The three day X-rated event has previously attracted criticism from nearby residents who complained about 'loud moaning sounds' coming from the site. But it has since relocated to a larger, more rural location as numbers increased and organisers say they are committed to challenging the 'sleazy' stigma around the festival.
Strict rules, organizers say, keep things in order.
As we mentioned, Swingathon takes the 'safety, security and privacy of our members VERY seriously' – which is why they 'verify' every single attendee before the festival begins. To gain access to the event, organisers must have confirmed that you are 'active within the lifestyle' as a swinger and that you 'have a deep understanding of what the festival is about'. If you are part of an online platform for swingers – such as FabSwingers, SpicyMatch, Pineapple App or GroupFun – you can simply offer up your username, which organisers will then cross reference.
A more decorous Folsom Street Fair, with tea and biscuits! The scandalized fascination of the tabloids is interesting. They seem stuck on seeing it through a 20th-century lens of "seediness behind the curtains of respectability" and barely even notice the flags, etc. The 1970s swingers stock story is perfect, it can run verbatim.
Britain has potential as a safe haven for commerce around sexuality, notwithstanding the peculiar local pathologies. A working hypothesis: it's a major jurisdiction where sex work has never been illegal, so banks have never had a problem processing payments for That Sort Of Thing, which is why OnlyFans happened there, and so on.
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