THANATOS

ASSFEST S25 | RIM | 31.08.25 | A SPACE IN SYDNEY | GADIGAL LAND

We are living in a moment of intense global despair, grief and collective trauma.

At the Australian School of Sexuality, we’ve honestly struggled a little with creating a pleasure festival within such a context. But bodies, sex and pleasure are not frivolous - they are sites of immense political importance.

This is a ritual of feeling.

Without expression, embodied trauma becomes stuck, creating dysregulation and dissociation, and blocking the pathways to pleasure.

The first step to feeling pleasure is feeling.

And it can be so hard.

This is a space to do it together - to drop in, to feel, to express, to not be alone in that, and afterwards to share stillness, touch and connection with community.

You will enter the space,

Light a candle for Palestine,

For the light to stay alive

In the growing darkness

When are ready

To wear your shroud

Enter

Drop In

Feel.

We welcome your sound.

Your expression.

We feel your grief.

We share it.

When you are ready to emerge, please seek nourishment,

And if you are willing to hold

The grief of others

Return and Witness.

As we each complete our process; we will come together in a space of platonic touch, comfort and connection.

We will be taking some photographs of this event.

Whilst many of our deeper rituals remain private, this one is about expression and being seen, and the transmutation of our feeling into art feels appropriate. No video will be taken of this ritual.

Please bring:

A shroud - preferably white, alternatively red or green.

A candle and a jar.

Water and a small gift of nourishment for the communal table.

100% of ticket sales go to Medicins Sans Frontier for their work in Gaza and other frontline regions.