We can stay! Onwards to 2023.

Shout it from the rooftops … WE CAN STAY!! To those of you who have just joined us, you have arrived just in time to hear the good news. The Rabbit Hole Parties Adelaide has now been given official permission by the council to remain in our current home, and we can resume holding our events! Many of us in our community have been holding our breath, wondering if we were going to have to shut down, since council became aware of our existence 3 months ago. However, due to superb negotiation skills by some amazing people to whom we are indebted to, council has given us permission to stay!

Sexhibition 2022

2022 has certainly been a year to remember. There have been some amazing highs, but there have also been some heart-breaking lows. So much for hoping we would be hitting the “plain sailing” part of running parties by now, after almost 4 years. We’re starting to think that the concept is a myth!

Thanks to Omicron coronavirus, New Year’s Eve 2021 at The Rabbit Hole was cancelled, and 2022 began without a bang. As the year progressed though, and vaccination and infection increased herd immunity to Covid, those who had been hibernating for the last 2 years started coming back to The Rabbit Hole again. It was lovely to see some familiar faces we hadn’t seen in ages! But more strikingly, we had an explosion of interest from newbies! We wonder perhaps if people had been researching and discussing open relationships whilst being stuck at home, and swinging seemed like a reasonable first step into consensual non-monogamy.

Our Newbie event poster

Swinging was a hot topic in 2022. We had a flurry of requests for interviews early in the year, beginning with a chat with Yumi Stynes about Swinging on Ladies We Need To Talk podcast in April. Then Wendee and Andrew had a fun chat with Lawrence and Jess from Our Secret Spot on their podcast, about the similarities and differences of running our respective clubs. Even our local paper The Advertiser jumped on the bandwagon, they included a segment on swinging and The Rabbit Hole when they did a piece on how the pandemic had affected the alternative community. It is so great being able to have honest and thoughtful mainstream conversations about The Lifestyle now, and it be recognised as a valid relationship choice. And we are honoured to be a recognised voice in helping people navigate this fun and seductive world, but which can be fraught with danger if entered without direction and responsibility.

The Advertiser 18/06/22

So, it seemed inevitable that the opportunity gods threw Sexhibition our way.

In September, we received a message from ShineSA, Adelaide’s leading not-for-profit provider of primary care services and education for sexual and relationship wellbeing, offering us a grant to promote Sexual Health Week. Of course we said Yes! And Sexhibition was born.

And Dave the handyman extraordinaire that he is, builds a stage for us in 3 days!

Dave builds a stage for Sexhibition

A whirlwind 5 weeks later, we have an incredible sunny Saturday at The Rabbit Hole, where a full house of people were enthralled by the sex-positive, educational, and fun presentations, delivered by 5 enthusiastic and engaging speakers excited to have the opportunity to share their passion. This culminated in a fabulous Neon Party that night, where everyone just absolutely glowed! It was such a fantastic day and we received so much positive feedback from this that we will certainly organise another one again.

Wendee at Sexhibition

Neon Party Oct 22

Behind the scenes however, things were a bit challenging. Those who have known your polycule of hosts since the beginning, could see and feel the tension. As we all know, as relationships grow and change and people’s needs differ, sometimes 2 people are happier apart than together. Eventually, one of us made the difficult decision to step away to prioritise their own needs. Though we were heart-broken, we completely understood and supported them. We’re very glad to say that we have remained friends, and sincerely hope that they will one day return to party with us.

So now as we near the end of 2022, in the blink of an eye almost 4 years has passed since The Rabbit Hole began. It has certainly been a journey, safe to say when we first started we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

We had hit the ground running when we first opened, but 2 years in by late 2020, we almost gave it up when we reached a crisis point. We made some key changes then to the way we hosted our parties, and luckily were able to get ourselves back into the swing of things.

Now 2 years later again, as we look back over the last 4 years, we can hardly believe where we are. When news broke 2 months ago that council was threatening to shut us down, the outpouring of support offered from our community (ranging from signing petitions, writing to politicians and protesting outside of council offices!) was so heartwarming! Thankfully we didn’t need to take such drastic measures! Now that we can stay where we are, the relief is immense … some of us may have shed a tear or three.

Gratitude to council

The changes we need to make in order to comply with council regulations will not really be noticeable to our guests, as it simply consolidates The Rabbit Hole as a membership-based privately-hosted house parties venue. To be crystal clear, this means attendance at events are by invitation only, to members of our community. It will remain free to join the community, but in order to maintain the sexy, classy, safe and fun environment The Rabbit Hole is known for, we will continue to reserve the right to carefully select our guests.

For those of you who are already part of The Rabbit Hole community, we thank you so much for coming along with us on our journey. It has been so amazing to have the love and support from you, thank you for showing us that we are a community worth fighting for. We hope you have had lots of fun along the way and have made lots of friends, and we can’t wait to welcome you back in 2023.

For those of you new to the scene and looking to dip your toe in, we are looking forward to meeting you, and can’t wait to show you what an amazing community we are!

After our NYE Night with the Stars party, we will be taking a break in January to have a well-deserved rest. After that, we will be back with bells on!

Woooohooooo!!

With love,

Wendee, Dave, Andrew xxx

December 2022

Andrew and Dave Nov 22