Europeans are generally known for their liberal views on nudity and sex in public places. Unlike in North America and Latin America, going nude or semi-nude in the streets is nothing scandalous. I mean, in France and other European countries, there are “pissoirs” or public urinals in the street.

However, one European city, the city of Barcelona, Spain, in a special council session on Friday, a ban on naked or nearly naked in public spaces was passed.

The ban includes going shirtless, in bikini or swimsuit – for both sexes – in public spaces, “unless specific authorization” is obtained.

“There is the beach, and if you want there are nudist areas close to Barcelona, the city centre requires a different dress code”, say city officials.

Barcelona’s objective is to get rid of semi-naked tourists walking its streets.

The Barcelona Tourism Board will start an awareness campaign asking tourists not to stroll in bathing suits and shorts-and-slippers-only through all parts of the city. Image issues and common courtesy towards Barcelona’s locals and its institutions require to remind tourists they are not in Lloret de Mar, but in a historic city where some measure of dressing etiquette is not misplaced, says a Tourism Board spokesperson.

Barcelona has a beach. On the beach you wear shorts, a bathing suit, or next to nothing. That’s no problem.
Barcelona also has a Picasso museum, an ancient cathedral, a historic city centre and many places where locals go in ´normal dress mode´.

There, wearing swimming trunks and slippers while showing off tattoos left, right and centre should not be okay, says the tourism authority. For the moment no sanctions or policing are planned to force (some) visitors to dress slightly more elegantly in the Parc Güell, Plaza Cataluña or the major shopping malls, but there will be a publicity campaign and brochures to ask tourists to dress “appropriately for the occasion”.

The Grec Festival is probably the most popular and transcendent cultural festival of Barcelona. Specialized in music, dance and theatre, the Grec Festival has been taking place every year since 1976. This edition focuses on the renovation and expansion of the program with the presentation of up to 66 shows.

Despite the reduced supply of music this year, it will continue to be an elementary part of the program, as it has become customary at the festival. These are some of the most outstanding concerts: the singer Vinicio Capossela, the Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, the Algerian singer Khaled with its rai music, the Argentinean composer and singer Sofía Rei Koutsovitis or the hip-hop singer la Mala Rodríguez & Refree, among others.

Read more here at The Grec Festival 2009 Barcelona