Over 40 People Test Positive For Coronavirus After Attending New Orleans Swingers Convention

At least 41 people who attended a swingers gathering in New Orleans in November have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the event's organizer.

iStockphoto / Nodar Chernishev


At least 41 people, who attended a swingers party in New Orleans in November, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Talk about going out on a bang.

The venturesome event, which took place from November 11-15, was described as: “Join us in New Orleans for a fabulous long weekend with over 2000 sexy lifestylers and swingers at Naughty Events‘ Naughty in N’awlins, a lifestyle and swinger convention, one of the most popular lifestyle events in the USA!” The “unique and extraordinary event” featured a parade of swingers down Bourbon Street. At least it’s outdoors?

Sure there’s a pandemic spreading like wildfire, but how are you going to stay home and miss out on “one of the most popular lifestyle events in the USA?” While there was an intimidating threat of contracting COVID-19 at the swingers event, surprisingly, the thirst for new polyamourous love compelled many to show up. Attendance plummeted, dropping from the expected attendance of 2,000 swingers to only about 250 eager casanovas.

The event took several precautions to curb the chances of catching coronavirus, including masks being worn, social distancing, contact diaries were kept, and attendees were tested before the Naughty in N’awlins convention.

“Over 50% of our attendees had the antibodies and many of the rest got tested right before the event,” said Bob Hannaford, the founder and CEO of Naughty in N’awlins.

Unfortunately, this is a swingers convention and not a knitting convention, so social distancing may have been harder than expected.

Of the approximate 250 go-getters, at least 41 tested positive…for COVID-19 following the event, according to NOLA.com. Most of the cases were asymptomatic or very mild. However, one of the swingers was hospitalized and in serious condition, but thankfully has since been released.

“When we ask people to maintain social distance, when we ask people to obey the public health guidelines, there’s a reason for that,” a spokesperson for New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a news conference Tuesday. “And when those guidelines are not adhered to, you see a spike in infections, you see a superspreader event.”

This was a superspreader event in more than one way.

I’m no epidemiologist, but I’m not sure that these masks stop the spread of COVID.

via GIPHY

Hannaford didn’t see this coming and now has some regrets about planning this year’s event amidst of a pandemic.

“If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again,” Hannaford wrote in a blog post about this year’s event. “I wouldn’t do it again if I knew then what I know now. It weighs on me and it will continue to weigh on me until everyone is 100% better.”

“In almost every case, they admitted to us that they were super diligent on the first two days (Wed & Thurs) and then they relaxed a little on Friday and then they said ‘F*** it, it’s our last day and many admitted that their lax effort on that final day is probably why they ended up positive,” he wrote.

I mean, if you are going to get the rona (which seems pretty likely at this point since over 14 million Americans have already been infected), why not get the rona in a fun fashion, like at a swinger convention.

Which sounds like a better story: “I caught coronavirus when I went to the grocery store to buy Entenmann’s Devils Food Crumb Donuts,” or “I caught coronavirus when I went to a swinger’s party in New Orleans.” Obviously, the latter sounds like a more enjoyable way of catching the plague of the century.

Anyway, I hope your mom didn’t catch the rona at this event.

Tell her I said, “Hi.”