Sue, Joan, and Mary live together in a three-way relationship—they call themselves polyamorous. Lee and Kerry meet up with other like-minded couples to enhance their sex life—they call themselves swingers. Jamal and Toby didn't let civil partnership stop them from cruising the gay scene together—they call theirs an open relationship. Like many other people, they've all discovered that happy and honest relationships don't have to be monogamous, and chosen an alternative that suits them.
We don't have to explore this new territory alone. Polyday is our day to get together and share our experiences, our questions, the lessons we've learned and the joys we've experienced.
In the daytime Polyday will be holding a number of facilitated discussion groups on a variety of topics related to non-monogamous living—an opportunity to hear how other people are living and to share your knowledge and experience.
Discussions at Polyday are organised into "workshops"—discussion periods of just over an hour with appointed facilitators. The facilitator's job is not to be the "expert" on the topic, but to help discussion flow and ensure everyone who wants to has a chance to have their say. There will usually be two workshops on at once.
If you don't fancy either of the workshops on at a given time, the terrace bar will be open all day for relaxing and socialising.
In the evening there will be dancing, socialising, and celebrating, building a community of people who choose to live differently.
From 8pm until midnight there will be a disco in the Thomas Doggett's Bar, with an eclectic mix of music for everyone who fancies a dance. The Terrace Bar upstairs will also remain open for when your least favourite track comes on...
Children are welcome at Polyday during the day, but unfortunately we can't allow children in the workshops (except the parents' meet-up) or once the evening event starts (at 8pm).
Polyday is all about talking and socialising. It's not a sex club, a fetish club, or a dating service. See our code of conduct for more detail. We have no problem with those sorts of events—we just wanted to run something different.
Not everyone at Polyday will want the world to know the intimate details of how they live their lives. The code of conduct mandates that you must respect the privacy of other attenders, and we will not be passing on your details to anyone else.
Nonetheless, you should be aware that some attenders may not respect your privacy; for all we know, some attenders could be undercover journalists working for the tabloid press. If you aren't entirely public about everything you discuss at Polyday, you may wish for example to be guarded about your real name and other identifying details.
It often seems that no two participants in this community can agree exactly on any definition of the words we use, so this glossary can only be a rough guide—we hope you find it useful.
Polyday 2008 is the third Polyday in London and the fourth overall, following on from the successful first Polyday created by Grant in Leicester in October 2004, and its successors in London in 2006 and 2007.
—Paul Crowley
and the Polyday team