Key party
Also: car-key party
A largely historical swinging gathering — popularised in 1970s lore — where attendees' keys were drawn at random to pair people for the night. Mostly a cultural artefact today; modern LifeStyle practice is consent-forward, not chance-based.
A key party is the classic pop-culture image of swinging: guests drop their keys in a bowl on arrival, and at the end of the night someone draws a set at random to determine who goes home with whom. It belongs mostly to 1970s suburban folklore — and to films and novels depicting that era — more than to documented widespread practice.
The reason it's worth defining is mainly to mark how far the modern LifeStyle has moved from it. Contemporary practice is built around explicit, in-the-moment consent and chosen connections, not chance pairing: nobody is matched by a random draw, and the idea of being obligated to go home with whoever's keys you pulled runs directly against today's consent norms. The key party persists as a cultural reference and an occasional themed-party gimmick rather than a real organising principle.
When the term comes up now, it's usually either nostalgic, cinematic, or a misunderstanding of how the LifeStyle actually works — which is far more conversation-driven and consent-centred than the bowl-of-keys image suggests.