"They were just shaking their bums a bit, have they done something illegal?" Robin Malki, who owns the bar along with his father Robil Malki, told Blekinge Läns Tidning.
The Terrassen bar and restaurant was open as usual, serving food and drinks to guests on a standard weekend earlier in June. According to Robil Malki, around four guests started dancing by their table. A police officer walked in and spotted them, after which he started filming the guests in order to file an official police report.
"He came in and filmed them. The guests became angry and asked 'why? we haven't done anything,'" Robil Malki told the newspaper.
Prior to 2023, Swedish bars and restaurants had to apply for a dance permit with the police before they could organise events where dancing was likely to occur, with any establishments allowing dance without a permit risking a fine if they were discovered to have put on a 'dance event'.
This law was originally brought in in 1956 following a decade of growing moral panic over dansbaneeländet, or "the vice of the dance floor".
Jazz music, rock and roll, and dances such as the swing and the jitterbug had been invading Sweden from the US, and the public reaction was closely linked to fears about young people's increasingly liberal views on sex.
In 2023, a new law came into force which abolished the need for a dance permit, instead requiring bars or restaurants to notify police in advance of any event where dancing is expected to take place, for example if they are setting up a dance floor or hiring a DJ.
Terrassen does host dance events where it notifies police in advance that dancing will take place, but did not do so this time as there were no plans to set up a proper dance floor or hire a DJ.
"We hadn't moved any tables, we didn't have a dance floor. What's the problem if someone stands up and starts dancing?" Robil Malki said.
According to local police, the restaurant has potentially broken the law after allowing guests to dance without a permit.
"Police were on site and could confirm that people were dancing at Terrassen and they did not have a dance permit," Malin Andersson from Karlshamn Police told the newspaper. "That's why a report was filed."
She added that the police and the restaurant have "differing views" on when a permit is required.
The Malkis argue that the new law puts them in a difficult position.
"If customers get up and dance for five minutes, should we go and tell them to sit down? You can't talk to customers in that way," Robil Malki said.
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