The Guardian

Sex, drugs and puke: partygoers turn Amsterdam into an ‘urban jungle’

The liberal Dutch capital has long been a magnet for British tourists, but now their behaviour is testing the tolerance of locals
Tourists outside live sex shows in central Amsterdam. Photograph: Naomi O'Leary for the Observer

Richard Hemsley has visited Amsterdam every year in the past decade to let off steam with friends in the neon-lit alleyways of its red-light district. Now one of those friends is getting married and the men are clad in football tops for one last hurrah.

“The freedom to do what you want to do, when you want to do it,” said Hemsley, a 53-year-old distribution worker from Eastbourne, East Sussex, explaining what keeps drawing him back. “It opened my eyes.” His friends pull him off to the Red Light Bar, where customers can drink, smoke weed and watch sport – all at once, if they

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