Organizers of Poland's annual Eroticon festival announced they would proceed with a controversial sexual endurance competition for women despite a prohibition issued by Warsaw's mayor. The four-day event opened in the Polish capital on 7 October 2004 at an exhibition center near the city center, featuring roughly 20 vendors offering adult films, books, lingerie, and live erotic performances.
The competition, promoted on large street posters across Warsaw as a potential "world sex record," is being filmed as a pornographic production by Pink Press, the dominant adult publisher in Poland, controlling 60 percent of the country's pornographic magazine market and producing four of every five erotic films.
Warsaw's city hall referred the matter to the public prosecutor's office, accusing the organizers of procuring, a charge carrying a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Organizers dismissed the accusation, denying any connection to prostitution and announcing plans to sue right-wing Mayor Lech Kaczynski for defamation.
Spokesman Krzysztof Garwatowski suggested the mayor's intervention had only helped attendance, noting the previous year's fair drew more than 11,000 visitors. Poland's population is over 90 percent Catholic, though pornography and adult services are sold openly.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.