PLAY! A Bonobo Network Retreat 2025

The Bonobo Network’s premier event of the year. Come dance, play, connect, and frolic in beautiful Tuolumne, CA four days and three nights. Learn more at BonoboRetreat.com.

About this event

The Bonobo Network Retreat is an unforgettable immersive experience. It’s the perfect blend of vibrant festival energy, deep community bonding, exhilarating play, serene outdoor relaxation, and personal introspection—all in a breathtaking setting. Whether you’re here to meet kindred spirits, dance all night, or embrace the thrill of new experiences, PLAY! is where it all unfolds against a landscape of connection, exploration, learning, and support.

This gathering is designed to have something for everyone. Enjoy four days and three nights in beautiful Tuolumne, California at Deloro Valley.

This weekend is about you. It’s about us. It’s about connecting - deeply - with our amazing community of humans over a spacious long weekend. Allow yourself to drop into unadulterated PLAY and deep CONNECTION. The Bonobo Retreat is, without a doubt, the best way to experience our community.

Here’s what you expect with your ticket:

1. Enjoy and commune over delicious and nourishing group meals (9 delicious and nourishing meals are provided plus midnight snacks!)
2. Dance our booties off into the night with tunes by incredible DJs and musicians
3. Have access to some of the top sex educators and sex culture creators via workshops to learn new skills and perspectives
4. Be able to raucously and respectfully explore one another's bodies in explosively hot play spaces throughout the weekend - both in and outside.
5. Plus, past years have included a variety of ways to connect and play including a talent show, grief altar, unique performances, affinity group meet-ups, pop-up dance parties, love letter mailboxes, community-created happy hours, and so much more.

Whatever you choose, this weekend is yours to create. For our ninth year, we’re excited to co-create a profound experience of sensuality, community, friendship, learning, laughter, and play.

Will you join us?

Want to learn even more about the retreat? Check out BonoboRetreat.com. This event is for Bonobo members only. That could be you! Click here to start the application process.

» MUSIC LINEUP

Rachel Lark

Beat Kitty

MAYVN

luckydust

ONA

J Smoov

dirtyplates

» FACILITATOR LINEUP

Reid Mihalko

Marcia Baczynski

Dr. Aly Ash & Sebastian Stratton-Clarke

Anton and Ann Fulmen

Marlon Williams

April Curtis

Laura Berry

Emma and Fin

Visit BonoboRetreat.com for class and descriptions and the full teacher roster.

» TICKETS

1. PrimeMate Ticket price: $500 (PrimeMates are a special membership level)
2. Standard Ticket Price: $600

Want a discount? Sign up for a volunteer shift!

1. Volunteer tickets go from $250-$375

» HOW TICKETS WORK

1) Buy one Standard, PrimeMate, or Volunteer ticket per person. All ticket holders must be Bonobo members who have completed the orientation by the date of the retreat.

2) Buy your separate accommodation of choice, if applicable. Every attendee must have their bedding accounted for.

1. If you’re planning on staying in the Lodge or Cabins, you must either purchase a dorm bed, purchase a private group room, or be staying in a bed or private group room someone else has purchased. Beds in dorm-style shared rooms start at $250.
2. If you’re tent camping, every tent camper must pay a $100 camping occupancy fee.
3. If you’re car camping, the purchaser of the car camping ticket does not need to pay the $100 camping occupancy fee. Any additional guests associated with that car camping pass must pay the camping occupancy fee.
4. If you’re staying in an RV, the purchaser of the RV ticket does not need to pay the $100 camping occupancy fee. Any additional guests associated with that RV must pay the camping occupancy fee.

3) If you need one, purchase a parking pass. Only one pass is needed per vehicle (not per person). Not needed if you purchase an RV or car camping pass.

4) Payment Plans Available if paying for your ticket all at once would be a hardship.

» REFUND POLICY

1. Cancel by 3/25: Full refund
2. Cancel by 4/8: 50% refund
3. Cancel by 4/30: 25% refund
4. Cancel after 5/6: 10% refund
5. No refund after 5/6

Check out the FAQ for unanswered questions. We will be periodically updating as new questions come in.

» BONOBO NETWORK PRINCIPLES

What began as a series of small parties in Summer 2010 has grown into a community that has served 3,000 people around the Bay Area and the world. Our community is united by the following principles, which inform how we orient towards the spaces we share and how we treat one another:

High Possibility, Low Expectation: Our communities are best when they're treated as high possibility, low expectation spaces. That means two things: first, that all kinds of awesome sexy interactions are possible, but that no one should be expected to interact with you in any particular way. No one owes you anything. Second, we often attend these events with an expectation of the type or quality of experience we should have. While anything is possible, you'll probably have a much better experience if you lose those expectations of yourself and open yourself up to the abundance of connection of all kinds available to you at the party. Low expectation DOES NOT mean "low desire" – we believe it's helpful to have a well-explored and articulated sense of what you want and to hold those desires lightly.

Trust and Integrity: Parties like ours are built on trust – that's what allows us to be as open and welcoming and vulnerable as we can be inside those spaces. But this requires that we all show up in full integrity, pledging to be our most trustworthy. Three important implications of this : keep the identities of folks at our events confidential, proactively disclose relevant safer sex risks, and take exquisite care of the venues, spaces, and neighborhood ecosystems that host us.

Consent: We agree that we will only physically engage with one another, including nonsexual touch, where there is CLEAR CONSENT. We define consent as an ongoing collaboration between two or more people in constant verbal, physical, and emotional dialogue about what each other needs to safely, willingly, and pleasurably interact with one another. Gold standard consent in Bonobo Network is affirmative, informed, unpressured, specific, competently given, and ongoing. Respecting and valuing consent isn't just about preventing violations that shred trust -- it's also about making sure that everyone has as much space as they need to fully occupy their yes. Please read our Consent and Accountability Policy (https://bit.ly/bonoboconsentpolicy) for more details on how we approach consent and accountability.

High Challenge, High Support: Play parties can be challenging and emotionally complex, even for seasoned veterans. We’re committed to making the play parties we throw high challenge, high support environments. We come together to celebrate and play at our edges. To fully support that endeavor, we provide a dedicated nonsexual space at each party for folks who need to get away from the intensity of the gathering. It means recruiting a team of angels who are available to provide counseling and social support throughout the party. And it means encouraging everyone who attends to commit to being an angel for everyone around them.

Incident Reporting If your boundaries are crossed at the party, or if someone acts in ways that are not in accordance with Bonobo's culture, please report the incident to an angel or party host. If you can't report at the party, you can file an incident report online at http://bit.ly/btincidentreport.

Everyone Contributes: Parties like this are never the work of a single organizer -- it takes the participation and contribution of a host of people. Everyone who attends is expected to co-create the party: money, time, energy, enthusiasm, work, intention, example, concern and/or awareness.

Inclusion: We are dedicated to fostering inclusion in our community. No matter your race, ethnicity, gender identity, or class background, we want everyone who participates in this community to understand that they belong here, and that they have as much of a stake in what happens here as anyone else does. While we recognize that everyone is on a learning curve when it comes to learning how to foster such an atmosphere, we also commit to a stance of learning -- and supporting one another's learning -- of how to be excellent to one another.

This is a dynamic list, ever growing, changing, and deepening as this grand experiment in connection continues. Thanks to you all for playing mad scientist with us