A ‘secret’ swingers’ festival that attracts up to 700 revellers and features ‘hot wives’, ‘bulls’, ‘unicorns’ and jelly wrestling has raised eyebrows in a sleepy village in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Swingfields, which describes itself as the UK’s only swingers’ festival, has set up ‘covertly’ on farmland near the hamlet of Upper Welland, two miles from the famous spa town of Malvern in the beautiful Worcestershire countryside.
Festival-goers have paid up to £415 for a three-day pass, which includes a luxury bell tent with two beds, heating and solar powered lighting.
More than 70 cars and camper vans beat a path to the event in the first few hours of opening yesterday. At one point they were queuing to get in as swingers from across the land made their way to the west country.
Swingfields, which describes itself as the UK’s only swingers’ festival, has set up on farmland near the hamlet of Upper Welland, Worcestershire, much to the dismay of locals there
People living in the village are not happy that 700 swingers are expected to arrive for the three-day festival as more than 70 cars and camper began to arrive at the site (pictured)
Festival-goers there have paid up to £415 for a three-day pass to the event, which includes a luxury bell tent with two beds, heating and solar powered lighting
In the welcome tent, revellers were issued with a colour-coded wrist band, indicating to other guests what they are up for. And guidance on the Swingfields website helpfully indicates what may be on offer for the party-goers.
‘Hot wives’ are married women who enjoy casual sex with other men, while ‘bare back’ refers to having sex without a condom, which is ‘generally frowned on’, according to Swingfields.
‘Bulls’ are well-endowed men – married or single – looking for sex, while ‘unicorns’ are so-called because they are single women and so rare in the swinging scene that few people have ever seen one.
‘It’s not quite Upper Welland, is it?’ said Marjorie Stapleton, 87, who lives less than a mile from the festival site.
‘Are we entirely comfortable with our burgeoning reputation as host to these commercialised, lewd and sleazy events in our green and pleasant countryside?’
This is the second year that Swingfields has chosen Malvern, which is famous for its stunning landscape, as the birthplace of England’s greatest composer, Edward Elgar, as well as the home of CS Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Today, luxury homes peak out from the wooded slopes of the Malvern Hills and only five miles away in the village of Ledbury is the sprawling £6 million mansion that actress Elizabeth Hurley, 54, bought with former lover and ex-Australian cricketer, Shane Warne, 49.
Now locals are concerned the well-heeled area may gain a quite different reputation.
By mid-afternoon, rainbow flags, one depicting a giant sperm and another declaring, ‘The Playground’, were fluttering against the backdrop of the Malvern Hills.
By mid-afternoon, rainbow flags, one depicting a giant sperm and another declaring, ‘The Playground’, were fluttering against the backdrop of the Malvern Hills
Revellers at the festival are allowed to ‘go natural’, but they are encouraged to remain covered from the waist down in the festival’s main arena ‘out of respect for catering staff’
In the welcome tent, revellers were issued with a colour-coded wrist band, indicating to other guests what they are up for. And guidance on the Swingfields website helpfully indicates what may be on offer for the party-goers
‘It is slightly embarrassing and in just one year we have begun to get a reputation,’ added Mrs Stapleton, who first heard about swinging last year when she was watching a Louis Theroux documentary.
‘It’s unappealing,’ concluded Mrs Stapleton. ‘They are not young people. They are middle aged with big tummies. It is slightly dreadful. And there is something a bit frightening about it. It is the covert way they go about it. I don’t like the secrecy.’
The village of Upper Welland is miffed at the event’s presence the second year running
Revellers at the festival are allowed to ‘go natural’, but they are encouraged to remain covered from the waist down in the festival’s main arena ‘out of respect for catering staff’. From early evening, ladies often strip to their underwear and lounge around the campfire in their lingerie.
Guests are encouraged to be ‘fun and social’ and warned: ‘If you sit and wait then little will happen.’
What might happen, if you play your cards right, is a ‘full swap’, where a couple swap partners for intercourse, a ‘soft swap’ in which a husband or wife has oral sex with someone else’s partner or ‘same room’ where couples have sex in front of each other.
Some people may just want to watch. However, while voyeurs inside the festival are encouraged to get an eyeful, the organisers don’t want prying eyes outside.
In fact, they are so concerned about keeping their site secret that there appear to be no signs to the event, which is wedged between a small wood and St Wulstan’s nature reserve off the B4209. Just a string of rainbow coloured flags indicates the entrance.
Revellers were only emailed the location of the event on Tuesday, 48 hours before the doors were due to open.
Only five miles away in the village of Ledbury is the sprawling £6 million mansion that actress Elizabeth Hurley, 54, bought with former lover and ex-Australian cricketer, Shane Warne, 49
For those locals in the know the festival has been dubbed ‘F***Fest’, but the organisers insist that Springfields is not a sex event
Neighbours who live nearby, and those who use the local network of public footpaths and bridleways, say they were obstructed by site security last year and are not pleased to see the festival return.
Shirley England, 58, who has lived in the area for nine years, walks her dogs three times a day on the land. But last year she says she was confronted by site security.
‘They came over in a van with dogs barking their heads off,’ said Ms England. ‘They came screaming up like something out of the Dukes of Hazard. If [swinging] is what they are in to that’s fine, but don’t have security guards stopping us.’
When MailOnline visited the site, we were escorted by security guards in four-by-fours but allowed to take photographs and otherwise unimpeded.
For those locals in the know the festival has been dubbed ‘F***Fest’, but the organisers insist that Springfields is not a sex event.
‘This festival is to provide a safe, private event,’ the organisers’ website states. ‘We don’t provide any sexual services, we provide the event that guests want, music, facilities, entertainment, comedy, food, bars and all fully licensed by the local police and council.’
One pensioner told MailOnline ‘uncomfortable’ with lewd and sleazy events in their ‘green and pleasant countryside’
This is the second year that Swingfields has chosen Malvern, which is famous for its stunning landscape, as the birthplace of England’s greatest composer, Edward Elgar, as well as the home of CS Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia
When MailOnline visited the site, we were escorted by security guards in four-by-fours but allowed to take photographs and otherwise unimpeded
Speaking to MailOnline, organiser Deb Harrison said local people were not impeded
‘Security is there to show people where to go,’ said Ms Harrison. ‘That is all. It is free access.’
And she insisted the festival is no different to Glastonbury or a hotel, where people meet and mingle and have sex and she said, the event is not covert.
‘It is not what people think it is. We have moved on from keys in a bowl. It’s about socialising. It’s about like-minded people getting together. If you don’t have chemistry, or a connection, nothing is going to happen.
‘It’s not secretive. We try our best to block everything out to protect the public and our customers. There is nothing anyone can see that would upset or hurt him.’
Len Stephens, 86, and his wife, Jean, 78, have been married for 61 years and lived in the area for 35 of them are not convinced.
‘I don’t think it should be here, really,’ added Mr Stephens, who uses his classic tractors to tow children on trailers to raise money for cancer research at charity events. ‘Does Malvern need this? If you allow it once a year it could escalate and come again.’
Asked about what goes on at the festival, Mrs Stephens replied: ‘I would rather not know.’