As New York City gears up for its “major reopening” on May 19, wherein most COVID-related capacity restrictions will be lifted, a group-sex party won’t be holding out that long.
Four days prior, SNCTM (pronounced “Sanctum”) is set to host an ultra-VIP sex-filled soiree for 80 hand-selected guests. The event, which will take place in a luxurious three-story penthouse in Downtown Manhattan, is described on the invite as “a nonpareil experience within a fabled erotic theatre and an opportunity to explore their personal desires without judgment. We are a society of like-minded libertines with the highest standards of taste and style. We embrace unrestrained indulgence with one rule—the golden rule at Snctm is consent.”
According to SNCTM’s manager, who goes by just “Robert,” the May 15 masquerade will mark the sex club’s “big return” following a lengthy hiatus owing to the pandemic.
“We had two events scheduled last year in March and April that we had to cancel when the shutdown occurred,” he explains. “After the shutdown, we were really on hiatus for most of 2020. When things started to ease, we regrouped and went back to work. We’ve been working pretty steadily since September, even though we only held two events—in September and October.”
Those September and October parties also went down in New York City, although they were limited to 30 guests (events are typically 99 or more) and came with an on-site doctor performing COVID rapid tests for staff and guests.
And fear not: the May 15 sexfest is requiring either a negative COVID test or proof of vaccination prior to entry, and SNCTM staff will be masked. Guests must also wear masks, albeit of the Eyes Wide Shut variety, and the dress code is tuxedos for men and dresses with lingerie underneath for women.
“We have some very elaborate performances that we’ve choreographed for this event, and we have some very beautiful models—‘devotees,’ as we call them—that will set a tone of eroticism for the night,” offers Robert, who adds that these performances will be “sexual in nature.”
Admittance will run attendees anywhere between $500 to $8,000. Most opt for a couples’ ticket, which costs $1,500 for a first-time couple and $2,250 for a returning couple, and VIP tables go up to $8,000. Members, who pay up to $50,000 to partake in SNCTM’s traveling carnal circus, are allowed in free. But don’t get your hopes up, dear reader: it’s already sold out.
“This one sold out the fastest that I can recall,” says Robert.
SNCTM was founded in 2013 by Damon Lawner, an entrepreneur and pal of Jared Leto’s. It’s grown from a tiny get-together at nightclubs around Los Angeles—that only came with a $50 cover charge—to branded, invite-only events at a mansion outside Beverly Hills. After Lawner sold SNCTM to an investment group in 2019, it’s since held masked jamborees at palatial homes (typically belonging to members) in Moscow, Kiev, Mexico, London, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. And it’s attracted a number of famous faces, from models and businesspeople to the likes of Brad Pitt, Michelle Rodriguez, and Fifty Shades of Grey producer Dana Brunetti, whom our reporter spotted at an L.A. SNCTM bash in 2015 (they also witnessed a person in a minotaur mask receive a blowjob.)
Getting into SNCTM isn’t easy. A team of staff members vet applications, and they “get more applications than we could possibly allow to come,” says Robert.
If someone wishes to join SNCTM—or even attend their parties—they have to submit an application that includes a questionnaire covering their background, what they do, and why they’re interested in coming to SNCTM. Once they pass that initial review, then they’ll be interviewed by a staffer (typically in person; over FaceTime during the pandemic).
“Aesthetics is the main criteria that we have to measure, because we want people at our parties to be beautiful,” cautions Robert. “We get regular attendance by celebrities. There’s one in particular that I think was there to do research, but they mostly attend to have a good evening.”
And that aforementioned minotaur blowjob is far from an extreme occurrence at a SNCTM party. Here’s a mere taster of our reporter’s experience in 2015:
On one side of a king-sized bed a woman in a thong laid splayed across her male companion’s lap, her lips on his erect penis, which was peeking out of unzipped tuxedo pants. Lost in their own concerns, they paid no mind to the threesome of twentysomethings that was going down on the far side of the bed, where a pony-tailed trust fund type, also nearly fully clothed, was resolutely thrusting away at a pretty blonde who had a second cock in her hand.
As for the strangest thing Robert’s seen at a SNCTM event? “I remember walking into a room and seeing someone getting their penis electrocuted at a party by a stun gun—not provided by us,” he recalls. “That surprised even me.”
Already featured in the Showtime docuseries called Naked SNCTM, the sex club is about to be the subject of a new television series that will beginning filming in late summer and wrap by the end of 2021, Robert reveals. In addition to the New York City celebration on May 15, SNCTM will be holding a big Los Angeles event sometime in June at a yet-to-be-disclosed location.
“It’s been such a difficult year for so many people,” Robert says, “so people are really excited to come back.”
