Riga’s mayor has lashed out at stag parties to the Latvian capital, but what do Latvians themselves think of the phenomenon? CATHERINE REILLY finds out
ONE DAY, out of curiosity, Baiba Kalnina decided to type her home city into an internet search engine. When she tapped the return key, the phrase ‘Riga sex city’ flashed onto the screen.
It’s “irritating”, agrees Kalnina, who lives in Dublin. “Riga has very beautiful architecture and is a very beautiful city,” she adds, referring to the Old Town which dates back to the 15th century.
Kalnina has seen the stag parties that have become a fixture in the Latvian capital. Most are “wild” and are “not really considering the environment around them”.
Indeed, the boozy antics of these stag groups – which mostly hail from Britain, and some from Ireland – last week prompted Riga’s mayor Nils Ušakovs to blast: “If we also had other tourists, then British visitors who piss about all the time would not be as noticeable. Let’s not be politically correct – unfortunately, this is their speciality.”
What particularly galls Latvians is the propensity of some revellers to urinate on central Riga’s Freedom Monument, honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence, and which remains an important symbol of sovereignty.
Some have even climbed naked onto the 138-ft structure to pose for pictures, resulting in fines and arrests. Kalnina says such incidents happen regularly.
In general, she acknowledges that Riga’s status as a stag destination does reel in money, but suggests that Latvian authorities need to push harder to attract a more diverse array of visitors.
“Now,” says Alvils Rein-bergs with a pause, a long sigh and a warning that controversial words will be spoken.
The 50-year-old Riga native, who moved to Ireland eight years ago, holds strong opinions on the stag parties that visit his homeland. But they land on the opposite dial to Riga’s mayor.
“If you look at the tourism industry, as with any business, any production has its by-products, its waste.” he says matter-of-factly. “And you don’t stop business because it makes a sort of waste – you try to deal with the waste in the most efficient way.”
For Reinbergs – a nature enthusiast who shuns stag-type gatherings (“not even when I was twenty”) – such parties nevertheless bolster a desperately ill Latvian economy.
“As far as I know, the country’s bankrupt,” he says of Latvia’s creaking economic health. “Unfortunately I’m getting phone calls and e-mails saying ‘How are you doing there? Are there any jobs around?’” 
In fact there aren’t, as unemployed Reinbergs is contemplating a move to the UK.
When it comes to tourism, he says, some harsh truths need digestion. “Most people, anywhere or everywhere, don’t care about architecture, don’t care about culture, and don’t care about history or nature.
“People who care about a foreign country are a tiny minority, maybe ten to 15 per cent. The majority go to let their hair down, for shopping, for good drink. They are having fun, they are bringing good money into the economy. The Latvian government and the mass media point people in the wrong direction.”
He continues: “I’ve been to Riga quite often recently, visiting the old Riga and going into restaurants, and having fun with my friends. I’ve seen those lads, and they are well behaved. Of course, there is always one…”
Indeed, Reinbergs believes Latvia should further entice stag groups by legalising prostitution and cannabis. “I said in the beginning that my opinion would be controversial,” he says with a chuckle.
Karlis Briedis, a 25-year-old who works in broadband support in Dublin, says he and his girlfriend share a joke about wayward drunken tourists in Riga. They envisage building a fake monument, and charging revellers who want to pose, or piss, on it.
Briedis has lived in Ireland for more than four years, but visits his native land once a year. He personally hasn’t seen disgraceful antics in Riga, only on news websites.
“My opinion is that a lot of tourists come to Riga, spending their money. If they are doing a demolition it’s up to the police to get it sorted,” he says. “If they make some kinds of mess they have to take responsibility,”
In Estonia, he adds, party-happy Scandinavians are welcomed with open arms. “They get back on the ferries on four legs because they are really drunk. But they are friends, they have had a good time, and they leave all their money behind.”
Asked if the mayor’s comments hint at an underlying social conservatism, he replies frankly: “It is just that the politicians are stupid.”
What made Riga so popular for stag weekends? Cheap flights and cheap beer, explains Padraig Roche, managing director of Fun Factory, a Dublin-based travel company specialising in hen and stag packages.
While the company organises lap-dancing and nightclub entry (and advertises drinking games on its website), it would be fair to say that its packages are a much more savoury and varied version of stag dos.
Clients of Fun Factory typically “want more than a piss-up”, explains Roche. “Guys and girls are looking for something else, and thinking ‘What can we do rather than go drinking all the time?’ I’m not saying people are angels but they are looking for something different.”
Stag activities in Riga include clay pigeon shooting, paintball and even tank driving. “Basically they are old tanks put out of commission in a cordoned-off area. It’s a course you go around, it’s quite popular,” explains Roche.
Fun Factory doesn’t view itself as “guardians of social responsibility” but does issue clients with standard safety guidelines, and Roche suggests that its activity-centred packages lessen the potential for severe over-drinking.
“Lads only get into pubs at six or seven in the evening rather than one or two in the day,” he says, adding that it’s rare for any client of Fun Factory to lose a security deposit due to poor behaviour. And in general, Roche doubts that Irish travellers to Riga cause too much trouble.
“It isn’t in Irish people’s nature to go and get into fights. I was listening to the radio and someone said an Irish lad is more inclined to [jokingly] kiss a bouncer rather than start a fight with him.”
In the last 18 months, numbers travelling outside Ireland for stags and hens have declined considerably. Roche explains that once it was as cheap to go to Riga for two or three nights than stay in Ireland, but the recession has seen a massive drop in hospitality rates here.
Prices for weekends in Riga are on request, and range from €200-500 per person, depending on what people want to do, but Ireland-based packages are now “much cheaper”, says Roche.
“There are really good deals coming out there now. In a recession, you have to offer people value. People do have money but they are much more thoughtful or careful about how they use it.”
Meanwhile, the more rowdy, drink-obsessed groups will continue their forays to Riga, despite the mayor’s protestations.
Aija Tropa, who lives in the city, sees them all the time. She terms them “a disgrace”, noting their “bad manners” and ways of making “women very uncomfortable when they say certain comments”.
Most are perceived as British, explains Tropa, but some may be Irish as many Latvians find it difficult to distinguish the accents.
The 29-year-old avoids clubs where these entourages swarm, and casts doubt on the economic contribution of such parties. After all, they “go to the cheap clubs and drink cheap beer”.
Tropa also refers to disgraceful behaviour at the Freedom Monument, which she describes as “sacred” and could not possibly be mistaken for something unimportant.
“This monument is so big that you would know it’s very important. There would have to be something wrong in his brain to not know this,” she says.
But Riga, and Latvia as a whole, has tougher battles on its hands right now. With the second highest unemployment rate in the EU, Latvia’s economy is expected to shrink 18 per cent this year, the sharpest fall in any EU country. It’s another fight for a country that is used to battling against the odds.
“It is bad, that’s true” says Tropa, “but we hope everything will be alright. Like always.”
