Rising costs, changing nightlife habits, private parties and dating apps are reshaping the world of sexual encounters, Het Nieuwsblad writes on 12 October 2026. In Flanders, the number of swinging clubs has fallen sharply. Antwerp‘s gay cruising scene has undergone a similar transformation, with fewer dedicated venues and more encounters arranged online or in private homes.
The decline of the swinging club
At least half of the estimated 40 swinging clubs that once operated in Flanders have disappeared. Two more recently closed their doors: Den Biechtstoel in Waasmunster and Club Goesting in De Klinge, which operated for 14 years before declining attendance and falling turnover made it impossible to continue.
The closures reflect a broader crisis. Formerly successful venues such as Cartouche in Beervelde, New Riddershof in Hamme, and Max Follies in Kasterlee have also disappeared. Those that remain face rising energy, staffing and food costs, forcing some to cut staff, reduce their catering offer or remove premium drinks from their menus. Others have increased admission prices, sometimes leaving customers disappointed by the facilities and atmosphere on offer.
The economics of swinging clubs are particularly challenging because many operate on an all-inclusive basis. Admission covers drinks, food and entertainment, with prices ranging from around €50 to €130 for a couple. At Club Goesting, a monthly gangbang event reportedly cost €110 for a single man, €30 for a couple and €1 for a woman, reflecting the different demand for each category of visitor.
Investment and entertainment make the difference
Luc Janssen, who has spent 45 years in the industry, believes swinging clubs can still thrive if they offer customers value for money. He runs Bornedries in Sint-Truiden (Saint-Trond), one of Belgium‘s larger establishments, with a nightclub, 22 rooms, a restaurant, wellness facilities, a swimming pool and a summer sunbathing area. According to Janssen, the club attracts between 500 and 700 visitors each weekend.
His approach centres on investment and themed events. Janssen argues that operators need business skills rather than simply an interest in swinging. Cutting prices to attract competitors’ customers can become a damaging race to the bottom, leaving insufficient money for investment and ultimately undermining the experience. He believes relatively few Belgian operators can make a living from running a club alone.
The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have added to the pressure, as some businesses have struggled to recover financially and customers have developed alternative ways of meeting.
Private parties challenge commercial venues
One major competitor is the growth of private gatherings, sometimes organised by ‘salonvogelaars‘: swingers who arrange encounters in their homes or rented accommodation.
The internet has made organising these parties much easier. Where finding enough participants once took months, online networks can now bring together groups of interested people quickly. Private gatherings offer greater control over the guest list and setting, without the admission fees or commercial atmosphere of a club.
Janssen believes clubs retain an advantage because they offer a wider choice of potential partners. Nevertheless, private parties illustrate a broader change: people can now organise their sex lives without depending on a dedicated venue.
Yet the survival of larger clubs suggests that demand has not disappeared. Some customers value the facilities, social atmosphere and opportunity to meet a broad range of people. The challenge is persuading them that these benefits justify the cost.
The gay cruising scene has shrunk too
The straights are lagging behind the gays again. At least, that is one way to look at the changing landscape of sexual nightlife. Antwerp’s gay cruising scene has also contracted. Where numerous bars once offered cruising areas, whether darkrooms, backrooms or entire venues dedicated to cruising, the choice is now considerably smaller.
Most specialised websites currently list just two establishments: Club Random and The Boots. Other, more unofficial cruising spots exist, but the overall picture is one of fewer dedicated venues.
Why has the scene shrunk? Much like the heterosexual swinging scene, it reflects changing nightlife habits. The days when people regularly met the same friends and acquaintances at the same bar every week are largely gone. This is true not only of cruising venues but also of mainstream gay bars and ordinary cafés. Increasingly, people organise their social lives around occasional events rather than regular visits to the same establishments.
For gay men, think of Beyond Darklands, Circuit Festival Barcelona (not the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalonia Grand Prix), White Party Bangkok, Folsom in San Francisco, and Folsom Europe in Berlin. These events bring together people around particular interests, from circuit parties to fetish and leather culture. Rather than going out to the same local venue every week, people travel to specific events that offer a concentrated experience and the opportunity to meet like-minded people.
Apps, home parties and the politics of respectability
As with heterosexual swingers, private parties have become an alternative to commercial venues. Home parties (‘homepas‘) and group-sex gatherings, sometimes organised in rented accommodation or through Airbnb, offer more control over who attends and what happens. Remember József Szájer?
Not that I have ever been invited to one of those. I’m not hot and sexy enough.
Hook-up apps have also transformed the scene, making it possible to find potential partners based on location and preferences without ever setting foot in a bar or cruising venue. Together, apps and private gatherings have weakened the position of physical venues as the main gateways to casual sex.
Good gays and bad gays
But changing habits may not be the whole story. Politics and public attitudes also play a role. It would be an exaggeration to describe the City of Antwerp as homophobic, but there is a distinction between forms of homosexuality that are readily accepted in public and those that remain uncomfortable or inconvenient.
The same distinction can be found within the LGBTQIA+ movement itself. Pride celebrations, same-sex couples, and LGBTQIA+ people who fit conventional expectations can be presented as positive examples of inclusion.
Cruising, anonymous sex and public expressions of sexual desire are harder to accommodate within that image. Cruising gay men can become bad PR for a movement that has spent decades seeking social acceptance and political recognition.
Health, safety and hygiene regulations add another dimension. Such rules can serve legitimate purposes, but their implementation may also make it increasingly difficult to operate spaces specifically designed for sexual encounters. Whether intentionally or not, the cumulative effect can be to discourage cruising venues and push encounters into private settings.
This raises an awkward question: does acceptance mean embracing LGBTQIA+ people only when their behaviour conforms to conventional expectations? Sexual freedom has historically been part of the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights, yet the more controversial aspects of gay life can be sidelined when respectability becomes the priority.
Most STD infections don’t happen in the darkroom, but in the bedroom
There is also a widespread assumption that cruising venues are inherently riskier places for sex. My recollection of a conversation with Mark Sergeant, a specialist at the Flemish sexual health organisation Sensoa who has since retired, challenges that simplistic view.
Around two decades ago, Sergeant told me that many sexually transmitted infections (STI) were acquired not in darkrooms, where people might be conscious of sexual health risks and condoms were available, but in private bedrooms, where people could become more caught up in the moment.
Neither commercial venues nor private gatherings guarantee safer sex. Nevertheless, it highlights the importance of looking beyond stereotypes: the location of an encounter does not, by itself, determine how safely people behave.
Dedicated cruising venues can make condoms and safer-sex information readily available. In private settings, participants must make their own arrangements. As encounters increasingly move online and into homes, access to prevention, testing and reliable sexual health information remains essential.
A changing geography of sex
The decline of swinging clubs and gay cruising bars points towards a common development: sexual encounters have become easier to arrange without relying on specialised physical venues. Dating apps connect people directly, private parties offer alternatives to commercial establishments, and large events bring together particular communities on selected occasions.
Commercial venues face an additional challenge because they must pay for premises, staff, utilities, food and entertainment while competing with alternatives that have far lower overheads. Their survival increasingly depends on offering something that digital platforms and private gatherings cannot easily replicate.
Yet the decline of these venues is not necessarily evidence that people have lost interest in casual sex. Rather, the infrastructure through which they meet is changing. What is disappearing is not desire itself, but some of the shared spaces where it once found expression.
The question is whether this shift represents greater freedom and choice, or whether it also means losing places where people can meet spontaneously, develop a sense of community and access sexual health resources. It may be both. The future of sexual nightlife will probably involve a combination of online networks, private gatherings, occasional events and a smaller number of specialised venues.
For swinging clubs and gay cruising bars alike, the challenge is to find a place in that changing landscape. For the rest of us, it is worth asking whether a more respectable, more private and more digitally organised sex life is necessarily a better one.
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