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Enjoy the Danish summer … but quietly

TheCopenhagenPost
May 30th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Loud music and sex through open windows in the garden can earn the noisemakers a fine

Let’s keep it down out there! (photo: ADD)

The sounds of noisy garden parties, loud music and even sex can often be heard echoing through the summer nights. But too much fun can also result in a visit from the local police.

“We get reports of garden parties going on a bit too long: definitely longer than when the temperatures are below freezing,” Southern Jutland Police watch commander Mads Leervad Dammark told Ekstra Bladet tabloid.

“There is no doubt that the fine weather draws a lot of people onto the street, and they stay out longer.”

Graduation day
Dammark also noted that this is the time of year when truckloads of graduating students make the rounds on the backs of large trucks, with many blasting music at full blast.

“It is a difficult balance,” he said. “But we may be a bit more tolerant of a louder garden party at 11 pm on Saturday than we would on a Tuesday night at midnight.”

READ MORE: Most Danes annoyed with their neighbours

The cops say that since the rules are not hard and fast, they do try to work with party-goers before levying fines.

“We give them a call and ask them to turn it down,” said Dammark. “Then we go out to the location. If we have to go back again, it can get expensive.”

The fines for disturbing the peace run between 1,000 and 1,500 kroner.

Keep it … down
Dammark said that cops also respond to complaints about someone’s neighbours getting a bit too vocal while having a warm weather, open window tryst.

“It happens regularly,” he chuckled. “Mostly during the summer, and it sometimes seems like it’s happening right in the street.”

Dammark said it’s hard to catch the frisky perpetrators in the act.

“It’s rare that we get there in time,” he said. “He’d have to be pretty good to have gone on that long.”

He reminds all the lovers out there that open-air sex is indecent exposure and could result in hefty fines and punishment.

“If the windows are open and they are screaming, we have to ask them to stop.”


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Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

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Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”