A popular resort town on Spain’s Costa Brava has banned inflatable penis costumes and sex dolls from stag and hen night celebrations, with fines of up to €1,500 (£1,276).
Platja d’Aro, whose population of 12,500 can host as many as 300,000 visitors on a summer weekend, is a favourite destination for bachelor and bachelorette nights. Numerous websites offer packages that include accommodation, cruises and male or female strippers.
The new bylaw specifically bans people from appearing “on the public thoroughfare without clothing or only in their underwear or with clothing or accessories representing human genitals or with dolls or other accessories of a sexual nature”.
Offenders face fines of €300-€1,500 (£255-£1,275).
“These attitudes have an impact on the community’s coexistence and we need to fight against them,” said the mayor, Maurici Jiménez, adding that were it in his power to do so, he would ban the celebrations altogether.
As an example of unacceptable behaviour, David Puertas, the local chief of police, cited a recent incident where the groom was strapped to a lamp-post with gaffer tape while his companions kept neighbours awake playing loud music and singing into the early hours.
The bylaws also prohibit going shirtless or in a bikini in areas away from the beach, a ban that was introduced several years ago in Barcelona to little effect as offenders are mainly tourists who fly home without paying the fines.
Barcelona, Málaga and Marbella are among the most popular destinations and, between them, host thousands of stag and hen parties which are catered for by companies that offer entertainment, from paintballing and clubbing to live sex shows. One calls itself, Brothels Barcelona, while a hen party site offers a strip show inside a limousine.
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Platja d’Aro joins a number of towns that are struggling to curb the excesses of stag and hen nights. They include the Costa Brava resorts of Tossa de Mar and Lloret de Mar, as well as cities such as Sevilla, Málaga and Granada.