Welcome to HAVEN
HAVEN is a space created through the people who gather there.
We come together with different backgrounds, experiences, desires, identities, boundaries,
curiosities, and ways of relating to intimacy, kink, and connection. What allows such a space to become meaningful is the willingness to meet one another with presence, communication, mutual respect, and care.
This framework is intended as a shared orientation for how we want to shape this space together.
It also comes from a very personal place. Over the years, we have attended events and festivals where we sometimes missed a clearer sense of shared responsibility, transparency, and care around consent and boundaries.
With HAVEN, we want to create the kind of space we ourselves longed for: a space where people can feel that genuine thought, care, and responsibility have gone into the culture of the event. We believe people are more able to relax, explore, connect, and show up authentically when they feel supported by the container around them.
At least, we know that we do.
HAVEN invites exploration, play, vulnerability, intensity, pleasure, curiosity, and authenticity. At the same time, we recognize that spaces involving intimacy, BDSM, sexuality, emotional openness, and group dynamics can sometimes become complex or emotionally intense.
For that reason, we ask everyone participating in HAVEN to approach themselves, others, and the shared space with awareness, responsibility, and kindness.
No space can ever be completely free of misunderstandings, discomfort, emotional activation, or conflict. Rather than promising perfection, we aim to create a culture where communication, accountability, repair, and mutual support are possible.
Consent & Communication
Consent is one of the central foundations of HAVEN.
We understand consent as an ongoing, conscious, and collaborative process, not as a one-time agreement or a checklist.
Clear communication, honesty about desires and boundaries, and the willingness to listen to one another are essential parts of creating meaningful and safe experiences together.
At HAVEN:
- Consent can be changed or withdrawn at any time
- Silence or ambiguity are not consent
- Previous interactions do not imply future consent
- Every person is responsible for their own actions, boundaries, and decisions
- Different people may have different consent styles, relationship structures, dynamics, or play practices
We ask participants not to make assumptions about other people’s roles, interests, identities, availability, or desires.
No one is automatically available for play, touch, service, intimacy, emotional support, or interaction.
Before engaging in any scene, play, physical interaction, or intimate encounter, we encourage clear conversations about:
- desires
- boundaries
- expectations
- risks
- aftercare needs
- safer sex practices
- communication style
- and the possibility that feelings or needs may change during the interaction
We also encourage slowing down whenever uncertainty, confusion, pressure, or emotional overwhelm arise.
HAVEN is strongly inspired by the principles of the Wheel of Consent:
Who is doing what, with whom, and who is it for?
Self-Responsibility & Emotional Awareness
HAVEN is a space that invites presence, intensity, vulnerability, pleasure, connection, and exploration.
At times, experiences in workshops, conversations, scenes, group dynamics, or personal processes may become emotionally challenging, activating, or unexpectedly intense.
We ask all participants to take responsibility for their own wellbeing and to stay connected to their personal boundaries, needs, and capacities.
This may include:
- taking breaks
- slowing down
- eating and hydrating regularly
- resting
- stepping out of situations
- asking for support
- communicating clearly
- saying no
- changing your mind
- or choosing to participate in a different way
There is no expectation to constantly socialize, perform, push limits, or participate in anything. You are welcome exactly as you are.
At the same time, we ask participants not to place the responsibility for their emotional regulation or wellbeing entirely onto others or onto the space itself.
Support, care, empathy, and co-regulation are welcome parts of community — but they exist alongside personal responsibility.
If you find yourself struggling, overwhelmed, disconnected, or in conflict, we encourage you to reach out early rather than staying alone with it.
Privacy & Confidentiality
Creating a space where people can show themselves authentically requires trust and confidentiality.
For this reason:
- Personal photography or video recordings are not allowed
- Please do not share names, identities, personal information, or private experiences of other participants without explicit consent
- Please do not post the location of the event or identifiable information about participants on social media
HAVEN may work with an official festival photographer or videographer experienced in consentbased documentation.
Any participation in photos or videos will always be optional and based on explicit consent.
Play Spaces & Safer Play
We ask everyone to approach play spaces with awareness, communication, and respect.
Please do not interrupt, comment on, or involve yourself in scenes unless you have been explicitly invited to do so.
Observe with sensitivity and respect the intimacy and vulnerability that scenes may contain.
If you believe someone may be in danger or experiencing a consent violation, please contact the Dungeon Monitor, Awareness Team, or a member of the HAVEN team rather than intervening impulsively.
A Dungeon Monitor (DM) and members of the Awareness Team will be available during evening play spaces and parties.
Safer-sex materials such as condoms, gloves, disinfectants, and dental dams will be available throughout the festival.
We ask everyone to engage in responsible hygiene and safer-sex practices, including:
- using fresh barrier materials when appropriate
- cleaning toys and surfaces after use
- respecting negotiated boundaries around body fluids and physical contact
- leaving shared spaces clean and usable for others
There is no single “correct” way to practice BDSM, kink, dominance, submission, intimacy, or relationship dynamics.
Different styles, dynamics, and levels of experience are welcome at HAVEN as long as they are consensual.
Substance-Free Space
HAVEN is a fully alcohol- and drug-free space throughout the entire festival.
This applies to:
- workshops
- social spaces
- play spaces
- and private interactions within the festival environment
Rather than focusing on external substances, we wish to explore presence, embodiment, connection, play, intimacy, and altered states through conscious experience itself.
Respect, Diversity & Community Culture
HAVEN welcomes people with different:
- identities
- bodies
- neurotypes
- orientations
- relationship structures
- experience levels
- practices
- and ways of expressing themselves
We ask everyone to contribute to a culture of mutual respect, curiosity, empathy, and care.
Discrimination, harassment, deliberate boundary violations, hate speech, body shaming, or degrading behavior will not be tolerated.
We encourage participants to:
- speak from personal experience
- avoid assumptions
- stay curious about differences
- communicate openly
- and remember that what feels right or meaningful for one person may look very different for another
Beginners and experienced practitioners alike are welcome.
No one is expected to prove knowledge, perform expertise, or embody a particular identity in order to belong here.
Team Roles & Boundaries
Members of the HAVEN team may hold different roles throughout the festival — for example as facilitators, organizers, Dungeon Monitors, Awareness Team members, performers, or participants in the shared space.
We aim to communicate these roles as transparently as possible and to stay mindful of the responsibility and influence that can come with them.
Because workshops, emotional processes, play spaces, and community dynamics can create situations of trust, vulnerability, admiration, or dependency, we ask team members to approach relational and intimate boundaries with particular awareness and care.
Facilitators and core organizers will not initiate new romantic, sexual, or play-related dynamics with participants during the festival.
Existing relationships and previously established dynamics are, of course, welcome.
This is about creating clarity, reducing potential pressure or confusion, and supporting a safer and more transparent environment for everyone involved.
At the same time, we aim to remain approachable, human, and connected within the shared space.
Conflict, Support & Accountability
In any human space, misunderstandings, discomfort, emotional reactions, or conflict may arise.
When possible, we encourage direct, respectful communication between the people involved.
At the same time, we recognize that not every situation can or should be resolved alone.
If you need support, you are welcome to approach:
- the Awareness Team
- Dungeon Monitors
- facilitators
- or members of the HAVEN team
Support may include:
- listening
- emotional support
- mediation
- clarification conversations
- or practical help
At the same time, the HAVEN team carries responsibility for the wellbeing of the shared space and its participants.
Behavior that disregards consent, violates boundaries, creates harm, involves discrimination, harassment, intimidation, substance use, or seriously disrupts the safety and integrity of the space will lead to intervention by the team and removal from the festival without refund.
Decisions of this kind will not be made lightly and will always aim to balance care, accountability, and the protection of the wider community space.
Caring for the Space
HAVEN exists within a shared physical environment that we collectively inhabit for several days.
We ask everyone to contribute to the atmosphere of care by treating:
- the house
- outdoor spaces
- furniture
- play equipment
- and shared areas
with respect and attentiveness.
Participants are responsible for their own rooms, personal belongings, and the general care of the spaces they use.
Please leave shared spaces reasonably clean after using them and communicate openly if something is damaged or needs attention.
Closing Words
HAVEN is not created only through workshops, play spaces, rituals, or infrastructure.
It is created through the countless small ways we meet one another:
through communication,
through consent,
through curiosity,
through care,
through accountability,
through presence,
through play,
through repair,
and through the willingness to remain human with one another.
We invite everyone to approach themselves, others, and this shared space with as much awareness, honesty, respect, and goodwill as possible.
Thank you for being part of this space.