That's the point of the event.
(I'll try to be as inoffensive as I can here)
About 200 performers, male and female, come every year from all over the world to this, um, resort. They have a couple of very large recreational pools that're side-by-side. The pool area at the center of the resort is fenced off and reserved for professional dancers and filmmakers/photographers.
The dancers dance for a panel of judges and for the audience. Someone famous emcees - Ron Jeremy did it last Sunday. Gilbert Gottfried did it for the one in July. The judges name a bunch of silly official titles that the dancers can use when they tour or put on video box covers, the audience picks some of the less-important ones.
Cameras are explicitly allowed. It's on the pass they give you when you come in, that you're allowing yourself to (potentially) be photographed, and to waive rights associated with your image. I saw a non-pro carrying around an EOS Digital SLR back and a telephoto lens the size of a 1 litre bottle (GaryH would probably have a rough idea of what THAT cost) and several other guys with broadcast-quality video rigs (steady harnesses etc). There were people there from several big production companies and magazines (the photographers from "Dreamgirls" and "Cheri" were both very beautiful women. I have pictures to prove it).
Cost is $50 to get in for a single male or female, or a male/female couple (note that when I worked in a club, it was very hard to get out without blowing through $20 or $30, even before extras like private dances were factored in. In this light, that price is completely reasonable).
People in the audience were fair game for the cameras. Some of the performers were taking OUR pictures. The standard procedure for audience to audience photography was to ask first, but almost every woman I saw there was willing to do some "Girls Gone Wild" stuff. Between contests, a few of the performers would meander over to the barriers and pose for the mere mortals. Sometimes they'd shake hands or give hugs.
I'd say there were at least 50 non-uniformed policemen present, drawn from Indiana State, County and local police departments. They had the job of enforcing Indiana's decency laws (performers could be naked but could not perform any explicitly sexual act - this was rigidly enforced for the pros but not for the amateurs, who were literally given a slap on the wrist. Anyone displaying sign of, uh, arousal in the park was escorted to the gate. People with weapons or glass bottles, who were visibly drunk, touched a performer or fighting were arrested immediately).
After the main event, which runs for about four hours, there's an amateur contest, which was absolutely wild. The festival itself is about eight hours long, but most of the performers hang around before and after. I was told that the people with genuinely good spots around the pool got there around midnight the night before (I finally managed to push myself into one based mostly on the fact that I'm good at moving people out of my way).
Two things: I have nothing but respect for the people who perform in that way. Second: The atmosphere there is surprisingly wholesome and very polite.
