It all began ten years ago, when a newly single New York City hedge-funder named Andrew Sparksfire discovered the city’s underground sex parties. When the party he was regularly attending needed a new home, Andrew offered up his own newly refurbished Bushwick brownstone as a venue, a home replete with backyard patio, bar and hot tub. Thus Hacienda—a community of libidinously like-minded people—was born.
“I had this new house,” Andrew says of hosting his first sex party, “but I didn’t have the community I wanted to share it with.”
Those first parties, at the “original Hacienda,” were private and small, with about 20 attendees. In the last decade Hacienda has evolved into an erotic empire. Today it is an intentional community espousing polyamory and sex-positivity, hosting both public events and sex-ed classes (e.g., “Female Ejaculation 101” or “Rope Share”), as well as delightfully depraved, private play parties. As the club’s reach has expanded, so has its real estate holdings, and today Hacienda includes four buildings…and counting. In the Bushwick section of Brooklyn is the original Hacienda, as well as the Hacienda Villa and the Hacienda Lodge, while in the city of New Orleans stands a Big Easy mansion dubbed Hacienda Maison. In addition, construction has begun on two new apartments next to the Lodge, and plans are underway to open a bar/restaurant in the neighborhood by 2020.
Of that new space, Sparksfire’s very pregnant, very polyamorous wife Beth says, “We aim to create a sexy-themed environment that’s open to the public, a place where we create community and produce events that focus on celebrating sexuality.”
Phrases like “creating community” or “celebrating sexuality” are heard frequently at Hacienda, implying that the club is pursuing a philosophy. That’s because Hacienda wants “to change the world,” Andrew Sparksfire says. “We want more people to embrace sex-positivity because it changes peoples’ lives when they walk through our door,” he explains. “I honestly believe we can change popular culture one sex party at a time.”
One way Hacienda differs from other sex clubs is that some of its members live on-site. Three people reside at the original Hacienda: Andrew and his wife Beth on the first floor and Andrew’s girlfriend Effy on the second. Fifteen more live at the Hacienda Villa, spread over three well-appointed floors, while another nine call the Hacienda Lodge home. Lest anyone be confused that life at the Haciendas is nothing but endless orgies, allow one longtime resident to clarify: “Mostly around here we’re doing laundry or making lunch,” laughs René, a 34- year-old straight male who has lived at the Villa for four years. “I compare living here to the show Friends, where we’re all just popping into each other’s apartments all day long.”
