Top 10 things (Part 5) that have changed in swinging in the past 25 years

Written By Bob Hannaford

8. Music

When we went to clubs and large events, the music was always a DJ and the DJ was usually the guy running the club or the event. Because they were behind the booth, there were often things that fell through the cracks or got overlooked.

The music was always what the DJ liked and while there was a diverse age range, the music was always one style of music and always only one sound system in one big room.

When we started, we decided to hire live bands and hire different bands and DJs on different nights to give us a variety of music. As the years went on and our events grew, we added secondary rooms with different music to appeal to a more diverse audience.

This year, we will have music at six different venues in our hotels, plus all of the different venues on Bourbon St. We will have one ballroom playing top 40 club music, one playing 80’s, disco, and funk, and one ballroom dedicated to EDM (electronic dance music) for the younger crowd.

Music sets the tone

We will also have a piano bar with live music, erotic poetry, and special guest performers. We will have music at the two pools and we usually have Yacht Rock, old-school funk, or jazzy mellow music to kick off the day before changing to music with more energy as the day goes on. We will have a Deep House chill set at the rooftop pool for sunset and then fun dance music at night.

Our Bourbon St parties take place at specialized bars and each has its own style of music. You will find bars that have country music, classic Rock & Roll, Zydeco Cajun music, Hip Hop, Latin, Dance music, and EDM.

It’s not enough to have one big room with one DJ anymore, we have continued to include the newest trendiest music while also providing a variety of music that appeals to all ages at our events. We love it when we go to big parties and we see live music and top production values. We think we set the standard and the industry is much more professional with their music.

9. Production

There are two parts to production at lifestyle events, they are the sound and lights production and then everything else. Early on, we invested in our own sound system and we added more amps, speakers, and lights each year. Eventually, we had to find a small warehouse to store all of this equipment and now we have a HUGE warehouse where all of our production equipment is stored.

Our warehouse getting ready for an event

We now hire lighting and sound companies to handle all of our music production, because this is an ever-changing industry and it is expensive to keep ahead of the curve when it comes to music and lighting. The equipment we get now is top-of-the-line and produces a high-end experience in all of our venues.

Having professionals handle everything is totally worth it. It allows us to focus on the customer experience instead of being in the weeds with production load in, set up, and all of the hours required to keep everything running smoothly.

10. Travel

Another big change is in the industry of travel. Twenty-five years ago, there were not many options for open-minded couples who wanted to go on vacation with other open-minded couples. Hedonism was one of the only places that catered to couples that wanted to 1. Get naked and 2. Hook up with other couples. Soon it was internationally known as the place where true hedonism took place.

Desire Resort

Eventually, more places would open. First Caribbean Reef Club in Mexico, then Desire Resort. Desire would go on to open a second resort in Cabos and a third they named Desire Pearl. Eventually, they would open up Temptation Resorts to expand to singles as well as couples that were looking to party hard in Mexico.

Today we have several places in the US, like Secrets Hideaway, in Kissimmee, FL, and Sea Mountain Inn in Las Vegas & Palm Springs. First-class nudist resorts that cater to lifestyle couples have popped up everywhere. Caliente and Paradise Lakes are two very good choices in the Tampa Area.

Couples Cruise charter

Cruises made a big splash into the lifestyle travel industry when we introduced Couples Cruise to couples looking to take the party out to sea. We had a lot of early success with sold-out ships and amazing parties. Today there are other adult-only cruises taking place every year like LLV Travel, Temptation Cruises, and Desire Cruises.
The industry catering to clothing-optional and open-minded couples is still expanding and adding new venues, ships, and hotels every year.

Well, that’s a pretty long list of the top 10 changes we have seen in the swinging lifestyle in the past 25 years. It was so long we had to break it up into a 5 part series. What will the future hold? Let’s find out together. Book a Naughty Event and come see how things are ever-evolving…

Bob Hannaford
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