Party Pikant runs erotic costume parties in North Rhine-Westphalia — a mix, in its own words, of party and eroticism: a hedonistic costume party with an erotic dress code, where guests choose freely between harmless fun on the dance floor and something warmer. It points at Paris, London and the Netherlands as the places that have been doing this for a while, and says it is now Germany's turn.

Its guests are mainly couples and single women, with a limited number of selected men kept to roughly one for each single woman, and its selection criteria are stated openly: an age band from 18 to a notional 48, with about ten per cent exceptions, and regulars keeping their place.

Registration is deliberately informal and runs on WhatsApp, which the organiser says is replacing email entirely — dates, insider parties, secret events, early-bird tickets and trips are announced there first. Nothing is binding until payment is confirmed.