Well, here we go again. Time for another review, and this one’s a long one. Please keep in mind that this review is based on our personal experience and your own experience may be totally different. Also, neither of us have any personal stake in any of the venues or clubs and we’re trying to make these as unbiased as possible.

Club Eden - XXXmas Snow Party, December 17, 2022

The Location:

Club Eden’s on-site events are held at a large hall-like venue in New Westminster, BC. The venue is quite large and spread over multiple floors, with different play zones in different locations. The setup for this event in particular included a check-in “lounge” with a bar and coat check on the first floor (more on this later). On the second floor is a very large “club zone” area with another bar, dance floor, booths with tables along the walls and a photographer area with couch and naughty Santa. There was also a table set up with a couple of table games.

Up another flight of stairs was one of the play zones. This zone was considered semi-private, with several (6-7?) double-width chaise loungers. Each of these chaise units could be visually closed to the rest of the room by the use of a curtain system, though everyone would still be able to hear any of the auditory aspects of your play. Or you could leave the curtains open for everyone else to hear you and watch you. I believe there was also one door that led to a private play area, but I could be wrong.

Up a final flight of stairs took you to a balcony area that overlooks the club zone. Play was allowed anywhere on the balcony area, though the area is not very large, especially down the sides, and so only the only furniture to be found down the sides of the balcony are chairs and benches. Also on this level are more (maybe 3?) of the double lounge pieces like the ones on the floor below, pushed together in an alcove. This is considered the “orgy zone”. It is open to everyone passing by, and a little bit limited on space compared to the orgy areas at other venues. Additionally, there are two other rooms on this level with doors that can be closed. One containing a glory hole setup, and one containing a dungeon setup with some furniture, though due to COVID there was no BDSM gear. Apparently you can bring your own though.

Amenities:

Club Eden provides condoms, lubricant, wipes, hand sanitizer and garbage cans in the play areas. They also (smartly) include pieces of paper and pens/pencils to be able to exchange contact info with people.There are four large washrooms available, two labelled men’s and two labelled ladies’. As is typical at just about every type of event, there was sometimes a lineup for the ladies washroom, but the men’s washrooms were usually free. The washrooms can be used for changing, as can the entryway lounge.There are two bars in the club, one on the first floor, where the entry way is, and one adjacent to the main club zone. Both offer cash, debit and credit point of sale. I want to say drink prices were about $8-$9 for a standard hi-ball with bottom shelf liquor.

The Rules:

As with all of these events, consent is obviously the biggest rule that everyone needs to be aware of. The hosts at Club Eden on the night we were there were good at explaining how they expect consent to work in the club. In addition, there was a discussion of ‘stealthing’ (Google it if you don’t know) and what should be done if you were to witness it. The orgy area is the only area where a person should expect that they might be touched without consent, though the hosts were quick to suggest that you should confirm with a person that they are ok with you touching them when practical. Penetration of any kind, however, absolutely requires consent.

Cell phones are not permitted to be used while in any area of the club other than the entry lounge where the coat check is. You can leave your cell phone in your bags at the coat check and access them there, or you can have your cell phone on you and go downstairs to that area to actually use it. If you’re seen with your phone out in another area of the club it will be taken by event staff or hosts and you’ll be permitted to pick it up from the coat check on the way out.

First timers to the club are required to complete a tour of the club given by a host. This allows them to show you the venue and ensure that you completely understand the rules mentioned above. The best time to get this tour out of the way is immediately after a pot-luck (if they have one at that event), before things start to get busy.

The Crowd:

As with most events of this type, there is a variety of people at these events. One of the biggest differences at Club Eden is the policy on single men. While some other clubs offer a mix of singles and couples depending on the event, Club Eden requires that all single males be sponsored by a couple or single female to attend. This does change the mix, so for people looking for a lot of male partners, this could limit you. Though I’m sure you could still find willing males if that’s your jam.

In general, Club Eden lives up to the “Club” part of their name in terms of the atmosphere and attendees. There are a lot of people who are there to socialize, dance and have a good time. I would say that the majority of attendees were in their 30’s along with some younger, and many who were older. Definitely something for everyone.We ran into a couple of people we knew from another event, and even some people we knew from outside of the lifestyle. We also met some people we had never met before, and enjoyed our conversations with them.

Our Experience:

We had a good time, and enjoyed ourselves and meeting new people. However, we both commented on the fact that we found it harder to meet people. I don’t know if that’s mostly because we’re newbies, but the loud music and busy atmosphere worked against us. A lot of people were crowding the dance floor, but it was loud, which is great for dancing and less great for finding people you’d like to play with.If we knew people in advance who were going to be there, Club Eden would be a great place to have drinks, dance and then go upstairs to play. This would also be true if we were veterans of the Club and there were lots of people in attendance who we’d already formed relationships or a history of play with.

The other club we’ve visited previously was a more intimate setting, despite also having a dance floor and music. That’s because there were multiple social areas that you could get away to and talk.We also both commented on the play areas. In comparison to a house-style party that has large beds and mattresses, the physical play areas were limited. I don’t know if there were any surfaces where four people could play as comfortably as you could on a mattress, aside from maybe the “orgy” space, which is in the open and made up of multiple pieces of furniture pushed together. We would definitely have preferred that the semi-private play area had beds, though we can understand why a mixed-use building such as this venue would have limited uses and storage space for beds. Could you make it work? Of course. But if you’re into threesomes and moresomes, you’re going to have to get creative.

Something else we both commented on was the changing and storage system. They offer the washrooms and the entry lounge for the purpose of changing, but both have challenges. For starters, the entry lounge connects to the actual entrance area of the club, which is a very small check-in room at the front door. That means the door opens while people are coming and going. Also, this was a HUGE bottleneck area for most of the night. Remember, the entry lounge has a bar (which not a lot of people could get to probably) and the coat check.The coat check seemed to be the biggest bottle neck, due to its setup and size, probably. Although the information supplied by the venue says that you can access your checked items throughout the night, that’s really not possible. The lineup in the entry lounge went from the entry door all the way around the room and up to the coat check. I went downstairs to the lounge at least six times in the hopes of changing and putting some things into my bag, but it just was not possible. This was frustrating.

A locker and change room setup makes so much more sense for the number of people (almost 400) attending a party like this. I obviously don’t know the reasons why they don’t use a locker system, but again I will put it down to this being a mixed-use building that isn’t always being operated as an x-rated club and has no space or use for lockers most of the time.

I should also talk about costs. Tickets for this event were $50 per person, plus tax. Street parking is free after 8pm in the local area, but if you couldn’t get street parking you might have to pay to park. Coat check is only a couple of bucks per item, so no big deal and then there are drinks. All told, you’re probably looking at $200-$300 for the night if you enjoy some beverages. The biggest difference between this and some other venues is the BYOB drink options that others offer. That obviously cuts down on your cost. We probably spent half as much at the previous party we went to because tickets were cheaper and we took our own alcohol, which they served back to us.

Lessons Learned:

Once again, communication is the difference maker. As newbies, we are still learning how to turn a normal conversation into one that spells out which hole will accept which appendages and on who. That’s a tricky conversation for newcomers, I think. We’re getting better, but I think we should have been a bit more direct than we were being.

Lesson definitely learned about the change area and coat check. I would have stashed my bag elsewhere (as I saw others had done later), or simply changed sooner if I had known how busy the entry lounge was going to be all night. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel comfortable stripping down to boxers and sandals right at the beginning of the night, because so many other people were dressed in more complete outfits. Whereas other venues expect mostly everyone to basically get down to the minimum off the bat, which in some ways makes me feel more comfortable to be wearing almost nothing, because we’re all in the same boat.

Would We Return: Yes, but with the the following caveat…

…that we would go if we plant to meet people there that we had spoken to before and had an interest in. Or, if our plan was to have a more social/club-style evening that just happened to involve half-naked people and the ability to enjoy various sexual activities near other people doing the same.Or maybe once we’re pros at this we’ll be better at finding at playing wth new people in an environment like that.