22

I’m from Brazil, and here, in almost every city, Thursdays are days which adults (> 25 y/o) go out and have some fun, staying up until late even if they got to go to work the next Friday morning. Bars and night clubs run full.

Usually, Fridays are expected to be the day for hanging out, but that is only truth for teenagers and young adults (< 25 y/o ) around here. Adults here tend to use their Friday to visit family, close friends AND have business dinners instead of going to the night club.

This perspective is true around <1M citizens cities. Big cities like Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio, Salvador, Recife, etc party all day.

This being true, I myself (22 y/o) do not schedule any business dinners with other older coworkers on Thursdays because of that. And so often I have to plan them on Fridays, which is normal for them but not for me, since all my friends are inviting me to hang out and go to a bar, etc.

This is not the main point though, my question is:

  1. Does this happen often in other countries? Because I have two business travels scheduled to Spain and Germany May/2021 and I’m in charge of the schedule.
Improve this question
5
  • 16
    You might want to account for the fact that Covid can still disrupt some of your plans, and especially in terms of night events at a club, as those are the first places that get shut down in case of restrictions.
    – Grand Torini
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 1:52
  • 1
    Currently there is a curfew in Spain, it starts (depending on the region) between 22:00 and 00:00. It is impossible to say how it will go in May. But, answering the question, currently there are not "party" days in Spain.
    – SJuan76
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 9:21
  • 1
    That question is rather vague imho, and it can even give you contradictory answers because of local differences, or different business conventions (e.g. fixed working hours before 9am or not). If you have a possibility to turn to your business contact in those countries, I think it would be wiser to contact them directly.
    – Sir Jane
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 14:46
  • @SirJane thank you for your comment. I do have direct contact with our business partners overseas. However, after all the answers until now, I now know that would be better and more polite to schedule meetings and dinners on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, leaving Thursdays and Fridays for last use cases.
    – RA828
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 21:08
  • 1
    Friday is amateur night. Thursday is a weird collection of super amateurs and lushes ('Thirsty Thursday'), and people who work in the industry (that's their 'Friday' because they work all weekend). (USA)
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 24, 2020 at 2:49

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
23

Does this happen often in other countries? Because I have two business travels scheduled to Spain and Germany May/2021 and I’m in charge of the schedule

In western Europe, bars/clubs are on average much busier on Fridays and Saturdays than Thursdays. With that being said, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are typically even less busy than Thursdays. These are just average, e.g. one can find a packed club in Paris on Monday. Also I'm guessing the Thursday crowd contains a higher percentage of students than Friday and Saturday.

Improve this answer
4
  • 4
    When I used to work in The City (of London), Thursdays were very much the day that colleagues would go out partying together (with Fridays and weekends generally seen as reserved for partners).
    – eggyal
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 23:43
  • 4
    In Finland, Wednesday was the midweek party day, with quite a few clubs etc putting on events. Still way quieter than Fri/Sat though.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 0:36
  • 10
    As the question is related to a business trip, I'd like to note that most company events in Dublin happen on Thursday because Friday is already considered personal time. This is a common approach in many of the big corporations. Pre-Covid, Thu. was a really busy night and many bars/clubs would have special offers on drinks, but I do agree that if we talk about clubbing Fri/Sat are still the busiest nights in most European countries.
    – Grand Torini
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 1:43
  • 2
    @lambshaanxy: The same holds in Sweden: Wednesday is a going-out night, known as lilla lördag, i.e. little Saturday, and certainly more people go out to bars on Wednesdays than Thursdays. According to Wikipedia this tradition is well-established in at least Sweden, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria, and South Africa.
    – PLL
    Commented Dec 24, 2020 at 23:07
21

I'm French and in student areas, Thursday is very much a party day: students who live away from their college often go back to their parents on the weekend and leave on Friday night, so they party a lot on Thursday night. It is popular enough for professors to know that Friday morning is a bad day to place a complicated lecture.

The same culture exists out of college: a lot of bars, nightclubs et ceatera have special events on Thursday (extended happy hour, cheaper drinks). Young salarymen also partake in Thursday parties.

Having lived in Switzerland, I know that it is also a thing there. I would guess that by extension, Germany also loves Thursday night parties.

Improve this answer
4
  • 13
    Good answer, except that in my experience, professors know Friday morning is a good day to place a complicated lecture, because only the serious students turn up ;-) (I actually really liked the Friday morning tutorials because tutors were much more available due to poor turnout)
    – gerrit
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 13:13
  • Haha you might be right! I guess it depends on your policy, and if the students are forced to show up (I had that during my DUT) or not.
    – C. Crt
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 15:04
  • Good answer, but I guess OP was asking about how people behave in working life, not so much as to what happens in student areas.
    – eis
    Commented Dec 24, 2020 at 7:52
  • This is why Thursdays are sometimes referred to as "Jeudredi" among students (a mix between the French words for Thursday and Friday, Thriday?).
    – user2723984
    Commented Dec 25, 2020 at 23:16
13

My experience in Spain is quite the opposite. Many undergraduate study programs do not have lectures on Fridays, or they do have lectures but the students are more relaxed, and Thursdays have become a popular partying day among students. Even the word juernes has been created to refer to this: it is a mixture between "jueves" (Thursday) and "viernes" (Friday). Here is an article that shows how popular Thursday partying is among students.

However, when people get older and get a job, they do not have so much free time on Friday mornings anymore. As "party" in Spain is usually assumed to mean "stay out very late", people above 25 are less likely to "party" on a Thursday. In addition, business dinners are not usually on Fridays, because people usually have private plans on Fridays. A business dinner on Friday would have less attendance.

Improve this answer
3
  • urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Thirsty%20Thursday
    – Dusan Bajic
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 9:32
  • 1
    I live in Barcelona and here it's the way described in this answer. Quite often it's not that universities do not have lectures on Fridays (at least it was not the case of my university), it's that an important amount of students are not from Barcelona, so they come back to home once lessons are finished on Friday. So, undergraduate students prefer Thursday as a party day.
    – Charo
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 14:53
  • In Pamplona many bars have special deals for beer+pincho on Thursdays which they call juevincho - a portmanteau of jueves and pincho.
    – Aaron F
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 18:43
7

Native German here, so I'll stick with what I know for sure:

For Germany, student clubs tend to be crowded at Wednesdays more then they are on Thursdays. For students, a business meeting early in the morning would be rather uncomfortable, but not totally unusual. A work-related Dinner for people 18-25y.o. would probably more comfortable on Thursday than Wednesday.

For older coworkers, business-related meetings even early in the morning are quite common, no matter the day of the week. Typically, a business day starts at 8 in the morning (depends on the company) and that's also when the first meetings can be held. Dinners take place mostly Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, as Wednesday afternoon/evening is often held open for worker union meetings and other work-related committees.

Improve this answer
1
  • I wouldn't go so far as call early hours "typical". It's certainly not far off, but it depends very much on the type of business you're in, and how your company handles working hours. I also fail to see why German students would go out on Wednesdays more than Thursdays... maybe a local phenomenon?
    – Sir Jane
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 14:42
0

In my personal experience, it solely depends on the population and size of the city.

I live near 2 cities a large student population in both.

  • Many students return home at the weekends so nightclubs etc. are busier throughout the week with a student population and student bars

  • The weekend crowd will mainly be tourists and locals and will be quite busy everywhere depending on the time of the year.

  • Thursday nights are more likely to be a mix of students and locals and in my own experience, this is the night work colleagues might go out to bars so they will all be busier but not as busy as the Friday/Saturday night. (Since we have a drinking culture)

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    Dean, which country is that?
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 11:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .