For context, in Norway we start pre-gaming at around 6-7pm then usually don’t go out until 11pm, often later. And usually the pre game is more fun than being out at the bar or nightclub.
Also Norwegian drinking culture is basically that we don’t drink very often, but we drink a lot when we do drink, compared to other European cultures
Also, as you get older you do drink less obviously.
Edit: I cleared up formulation and had to delete to make room.
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In college (or that age) what you describe is pretty similar.
Generally house parties are where it gets much heavier. People tend to pace themselves more and not have as much when they go out. Its expensive and you still have to get home.
In college I attended several parties that were similar to the wild bashes you see in movies. However, its far more common to hang out with closer friends around a bonfire out in a rural area or in somebody’s apartment in the city.
Being drunk and causing trouble in public is heavily frowned upon here. The way, say, the Japanese do it and then crash anywhere at the end of the night is a no-go here. Or the way Brits get plastered and then stumble around bothering people is pretty much unacceptable here.
You’d fit right in with binge drinking college students in the states.
As I understand it the kids are smarter about drinking these days overall which is good.
Overall, we don’t binge as much as most western Europeans do. What you guys call a normal habit we call alcoholism, in general.
What you describe would be a pretty intense night out for college students.
I mean, it’s incredibly varied (even setting aside those who don’t or can’t drink). In my experience what you’re describing would most likely be done by college students or young (likely single) people in their 20s. But personally, I drank a fair amount in college and I still never stayed up all night.
> Also Norwegian drinking culture is basically that we don’t drink very often, but we drink a lot when we do drink and a social taboo against drinking on workdays.
In terms of this sort of thing, I’d say that for American adults it’s more common to drink more often but not as much at a time. “Happy hour” is a very popular phenomenon, where bars and restaurants will have special discounts for people going out to have a few drinks after the workday is over (traditionally 5-6 PM but often expanded).
For me, I’m in my 30s and married, no kids. My average experience drinking alcohol is to have 1 or 2 drinks with dinner, which I would do maybe once or twice a week but maybe not at all. If I’m out with friends at some kind of social occasion I might have 2 or 3, but 4 or more drinks in one event (what I would think of as getting “drunk” rather than just “tipsy” or “buzzed”) is pretty uncommon for me.
There will be exceptions in both directions, but I think my experience is a fairly average one for Americans in my position in life. By that I mean people who are older and have kids probably tend to drink less, people who are younger may drink more, people who are single may drink more because they’re going out and dating and trying to meet people, etc.
My boyfriend and I stopped buying beer during the week. Every Friday we’ll get some craft beer for the weekend, or a mid-shelf bottle of whiskey.
Most bars and clubs in most cities close at or before 2am. Some cities – like NYC and Las Vegas – are true 24 hour cities. Some cities, like Chicago, have special licenses for 4am or 5am bars, but they’re rare (this may have changed since the last time I was in Chicago.)
So generally people will “go out” earlier because the cut off time is earlier than it is in a lot of europe. If you want to keep partying you’ll either go back to someone’s house, stay out if you’re in one of the 24 hour cities, or have some sort of a plan – like there are a couple of secret “after hours” bars in my city that are closed, but “stay open” for people who are in the know.
As for quantities it broadly depends on age with people in their late teens and early 20s being the binge drinkers and people tapering off as they age, however I’ve noticed a lot of Gen Z seems to either abstaine or just have a few drinks, and there are a lot more “sober curious” people as well, with completely N/A bars opening up in some medium sized and up cities. There are also people who never drink regardless of age and people who never stop drinking regardless of age.
With that said I can tell you as an almost 40 year old, I tend to not drink at all a few nights a week, have a glass of wine with dinner some nights, have 4 – 8 drinks if I’m “doing something” like at a bar/party or watching a game, and then once in a great while try to drink like I’m still in college, usually at maybe a wedding or if a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in a long time are in town, etc.
That depends on age. What you describe is how people here drink in their 20s. I am in my 30s now and I stay up drinking past midnight only a few times a year. I much prefer having a drink or two at home around 5-6, getting dinner around 7:30, then going out for another drink or two. I am usually home around 10 PM. This doesn’t really effect my sleep that much on weekends, because when I pass out at 10 I can still wake up at like 7 AM.
Everyone is different and your age and responsibilities will likely change how you drink.
For me, my friends and I barely drink and usually only do so socially. We don’t pregame because we don’t necessarily want to be drunk at the end of the night and don’t mind paying for drinks once out. If we do pregame, we more then likely get a drink at a restaurant first, then more at the bars.
My friends drink a bit more then me so I’ll usually get one drink every few hours. We like the feeling of being tipsy, not drunk, so that works for me.
We drive to the bars, which most bars are in the city which is a good 30 minutes to an hour away with traffic, so driving there is needed. But we don’t drive tipsy or drunk. We know when we are about to leave and stop drinking a good 30 minutes to an hour before leaving. If we decide to drink more but need to leave sooner, we wait around with each other to sober up, then drive home.
We also don’t have any norms against drinking on weekdays / workdays. Drinking in the morning is looked down upon but just being a workday doesn’t matter.
Generally, people drive to the bar or restaurant. Then because there are only two Ubers in your town operating past 7 p.m., and no buses, they also drive home. It doesn’t seem to be a thing with older generations but younger people tend to have a designated driver (almost always me lmao), older people just have fewer friends so that makes it harder.
At 2am when bars have to close there are generally a few cruisers waiting outside to catch a few of the drunk drivers, but they can’t catch them all.
Its pretty similar, but earlier from my experience. Its very uncommon to stay out until 6am. And it might be more common to start drinking earlier. Many restaurants around me offer happy hours 3-6pm for example. Your preference on going home to sleep at 2am would more align to how we do it in the US.
American drinking culture is not focused on clubs the same way that European drinking culture is, at least for young persons.
Many restaurants and bars have happy hours on weekdays from 4-6. It’s not uncommon to grab a drink or two after work with coworkers or friends. Friday is probably the most common day for that (perhaps unsurprisingly).
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>It is also common to do an after party (nachspiel) after 2am lasting till morning (often 6am). Though personally I prefer to just go to sleep at 2am.
Even in college, partying for 12 hours in uncommon, as is going to bed at 6 am for any reason.
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Also Norwegian drinking culture is basically that we don’t drink very often, but we drink a lot when we do drink and a social taboo against drinking on workdays.
American drinking culture is less focused on unhealthful binging than European drinking culture.
We have a population 60x larger than Norway with a tremendous amount of cultural background and variety. As with *anything* there is no one-size-fits-all “What is ‘X’ in the US?”
Some people don’t drink at all. Other – probably college kids – do what you’re saying of pre-game and then go out late. Some of us wake up for work at 5am and obviously aren’t going to be out drinking to 2-6am. Some people love cheap beer. Others like craft beer. Or bourbons. Or mixed drinks. Or wine.
What the fuck that sounds lit. I need to go to Norway. I live in fucking Seattle, where people love to be lame as fuck pretending that it’s because of covid, not realizing the rest of the world moved on from the pandemic but the city is still living in it. Everything closes at 9pm and there’s like 2 bars and 1 very bad night club. Not a fun place.
But go to NYC and man you can party literally from 4pm to 4am
Our lack of reliable public transportation makes a night out significantly different than most European countries. We normally have to have someone else drive, whether that’s an uber or a DD (designated driver).
Sounds like American college kids, something most of us thankfully grow out of. I don’t ever want that kind of hangover again. “Pregaming” a night out drinking? Nah, I’d rather enjoy one nice drink over dinner. Perhaps a second after.
In college the pregame starts at around 6 or 7, people normally go out at around 9:30-10:30, and bars in my college town usually close at 2 am. 95% of people will just go back home and have a few more beers with their roommates or go to bed
I’ve been reading the ‘My Struggle’ by Karl Ove Knaussgard and I keep thinking “he’s a broke student, and the son of a schoolteacher and a nurse. How in the hell does he afford to drink so much?” When I was in Norway it was the equivalent of 12 Euros for a crappy lager at a bar. Even cans of beer at the supermarket gave me sticker shock. It just seems downright cost prohibitive to be an alcoholic up there.
This greatly differs based on the city.
In Buffalo, bars serve until 4 am and are opened until 5 am, but in much of the country it’s only 1 or 2 am.
It’s pretty common to pre-game at 10 or 11 pm and not hit the bars or clubs until 2 am in Buffalo.
Also, different bars get busy at different times. There’s restaurant bars and breweries that are packed at 8 pm, but the dive down the street or a trendy club might not start to get busy until midnight or even 2 am.
After parties aren’t as common since by the time you get out of the club and some drunk food, it’s already 5:30 am.
In other cities it can be very different. Actually kind of a culture shock when visiting other cities (especially ones known for their nightlife like LA or Austin) and the lights come on early.
It varies a lot by location and subculture.
For example, where I live in San Francisco, it seems like most people would rather get high than get drunk.
People smoke/vape marijuana or consume other cannabis edibles way more often than they drink alcohol. It’s also much more common to use psychedelics since they’re essentially decriminalized in the state of California. The pre-games I’ve been to before going out feature both alcohol and MDMA with more people using the MDMA.
There are people who even micro-dose shrooms at weddings instead of drink. I’ve seen it at a few different weddings I’ve been to.
Something like 20% of the population consume 90% of the alcohol. 80% of the population doesn’t actually drink very much.
It’s very regional and situational.
That sounds similar to how drinking was when I was in college. Pre-game/snacks at 8ish, party or bar at 10 or 11ish, late night food afterwards. Although many nights we just ordered food and drank in the dorms/our apartments. I always preferred the smaller get togethers to going to bars and clubs.
I’m in my 30s now and most of drinking is at restaurants or at peoples houses at either dinner parties or holidays/special occasions. I haven’t been to a bar in years.
As almost middle aged, I pre game with the neighbors by our fire pit and just don’t go out.
Well, there’s American drinking culture, then there’s Wisconsin drinking culture.
I’ve been told, in both a positive and negative way, that we’re the only state that drinks like Europeans.
Iht prtrry chlil msn, , we czn fij ficben PARTYY
That’s pretty much what the drink culture is like at most colleges in the US. Outside of that partying isn’t a huge thing and drinking is much more casual
I drink more than most – more than I should too.
My wife and I (40ish) usually start drinking wine around 7:30-8:30. We will drink several glasses while chatting, reading, or watching TV/movies. She usually goes to bed around 11 and I’ll have one or two glasses of bourbon before bed. On weekends it’s similar, but sometimes we’ll drink beer/hard seltzer during the day. We rarely get drunk, but we will get buzzed if we don’t have to drive. Drinking and Driving is very looked down on and illegal. For weddings or parties, we will let loose a little more, so long as we don’t have responsibilities
In general drinking before 5pm is sort of taboo, but drinking on weekdays is not. When I would go out more it would typically after work meeting friends 7 or 8. Sometimes there would be pre-gaming with dinner at someone’s house and we’d stay out to midnight or 1.
In Chicago the bars have different liquor licenses and can sell to different times. On Friday and Saturday you can sell 1 extra hour. Some licenses would end at 12am/1am, some at 2am/3am, and some 4am/5am. In my youth we would sometimes stay out to 5am and get drunk food, typically at a diner and head home.
Where I live now it is acceptable to get a little drunk at big parties, weddings, and big social events. An outlier is sporting events, where it’s not weird to see people tailgating, and they’ll start drinking around 10am and get trashed at a game, especially college sports. In geeneral people aren’t drunk in public unless it’s a big holiday.
NFL season ticket holder here. Approximately ever other Sunday from September to January I take public transit, meet my buddies in the stadium parking around 9:30-10 in the morning, and we drink our faces off before going into the stadium to see the game. I’ve been so fucked up that I didn’t know who won the game I just attended.
It sounds like you’re a young person who lives in an urban area. What you guys do isn’t that different than young urbanites/college students here would do.
But with such a big population and variety of areas to live, the drinking culture in small towns or suburbs is a lot different than it is in Miami Beach or a major college campus.
Not a universal answer as Clubbing in LA is a vastly different experience than Pubbing in Boston.
Isn’t drinking very expensive in norway? How much does a night like you discribed cost?
Pretty similar to what you described when I was in college.
Now its less going out to bars and clubs to drink, and more getting together on a friday and playing video games or bonfire and getting drunk
Or we all go on a long weekend vacation somewhere (90% of the time, Lake Tahoe, and renting a cabin and drinking and partying)
It varies a lot regionally, and by age of course. Drinking culture in Boston or Miami is a lot different than say Seattle.
Pre-gaming then going clubbing at 11-12pm is generally going to be more of a 20s crowd in major cities.
I used to live in Europe. Main difference is Europe stays out later:
1) Looser laws around closing times, alcohol service, public drinking, public intoxication, etc.
2) Easier to get home after the bar in Europe. Either walking or transit
3) I find European cities safer at night than US cities.
US drinking habits are changing though, especially among younger people. Weed is becoming a lot more popular since its legal in most places.
Depends on the city somewhat. Boston is a bit infamous for closing early because people either get their drinks in early over supper (a bit like British pub culture) or just never exiting the pregame stage and drinking in or having a house party.
Americans in general are known for being dedicated and occasional drinkers, setting aside specific times to drink specifically for a particular reason (such as a holiday, personal event like birthdays or being in town, or a just-because party a year) rather than integrating alcohol into daily life like German beerhouse culture or French and Italian wine culture. So very close to what you’re used to. Getting/being drunk in public is also more frowned upon, so that American kids have a much milder reputation in Mexico than British kids do all along the North Sea and Israeli kids do in Cypress.
It’s like that in a college town / college age; these days especially if your old or your geographically isolated you just drink alone until you die. 💀
In college, we stayed out late. Probably start pregaming around 9 and head to bars at around 10:30 or 11. Last call is at 2 in NC so after that, we’d usually go to Waffle House or something like that and call it a night.
Now I like to be in bed by like 11 or 12 haha
I developed a habit in graduate school because of binge drinking and had to quit for my own health and safety. I’m 7 years sober.
Depends on where you live. I can’t afford to go out for drinks regularly. I live in the middle of nowhere with no bars or restaurants that serve alcohol. I’d have to drive an hour one-way to get to a town with drinking establishments.
There aren’t many people who go out for drinks very often from my area so I would have to hire an Uber, except that doesn’t exist in my area so I’d have to drink drunk or stay in a hotel every time. To top it all off, I have a very high tolerance to alcohol so I have to drink a lot to even feel it.
All together, it’s not worth the trouble and cost for me to go out for drinks. The only time I ever do that is if I’m on vacation, one or two weekends a year at most. So drinking culture for me is staying at home to drink. I spend way less money and avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble. Oftentimes, I have friends over to play cards, watch UFC fights or whatever and drink.
We don’t go out as much as we used to but in our early 20s we’d be out at the bar at 7pm, most on their way home by midnight or later.
Now we generally are out by 8-9, and home by midnight or later.
Occasionally (rare for me, I get sleepy early) we do stay until the bars close. Which is 2am here.
We pre-game sometimes, but usually it’s the other way around. Start drinking at the bar, someone drives or we uber back to someone’s house and continue drinking.
Weekends and especially vacations there are no rules. Bloody marys with breakfast, mimosas with lunch, whatever around dinner time.
Lived in Denmark for a bit, Norwegian drinking culture was more like America than Denmark, which was interesting to me. Infact I felt like Norway had a shockingly more familiar culture to that of my own compared to the rest of Europe.
As a Norwegian, I can safely say OP is not explaining Norwegian drinking culture. OP is most likely a young student and think everyone in the country drinks like they do.
Bars close at 3.30am in Oslo, so OP going home to sleep at 2am says more about him than Norwegians, unless he lives in the Bible belt of Norway.
And Norwegians “don’t drink very often” and there is a “social taboo against drinking on workdays”?? Now I start doubting OP has ever been to Norway 🙂
Americans barely barely barely barely barely drink compared to Europe.
People look at you funny if you say you like drinking because they assume that means you’re an alcoholic.
Having a drink with dinner is considered to be a rare indulgence by many.
It’s one of the things I hate most about America, icl. It’s a cultural holdover from the Progressive/Teetotaler/Prohibition days.
I think age is a good question to ask here, as well. I’m 32. I don’t stay out past 10 PM, usually. Drinks are either at a friend’s house, at a restaurant with a meal, or a brewery or bar along with Magic the Gathering or Scrabble. Every few months, we hang out at the farm and drink a lot of beers on our tail gates and play music. That’ll go until 11 or 12 at night. When I was in my early 20’s, I would routinely be out drinking at bars with friends, or at a get together at a house drinking. There were multiple times we would be going to Jim’s or I-Hop at 7 AM for breakfast, having never slept. Most nights ended between 1-3 AM.
But now that I’m older, none of my friends my age like to stay out late or drink too much. Drinks are usually kept to one or two. I get up early, and don’t like feeling crummy from booze and like to keep a clean head during the productive hours. Even on my days off, I love getting up at 5 AM (that’s the best time to be outside where I live in the summers), have a hot cup of coffee, look at my garden and tend to the plants, have my chicken and dog walk behind me, and listen to the silence. If I drink, I miss that moment of the day.
This is like an American in their early 20s. Except I did drink the occasional weeknight, a lot of bars in college towns will have weeknight drink specials.
In my life it’s changed with age. As I got into my 30s day drinking became a thing, like starting at noon and finishing at a 7pm dinner. I also got more comfortable with weekday drinking, like I might pour myself a glass of whiskey on a week night and just chill.
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The college student mentality is “I drink until I pass out.”
In my experience (for context, I’m 23) people start with drinks at a low key bar or someone’s apartment at 7-8, then head out to a party or a street with a lot of bars or a club after an hour or two, then usually head back sometime between midnight and 2. If it’s on the earlier side there’s usually some post game like late night food or video games
Depends on the individual, stage of life, and culture. There are alot of temperant cultures and recovering alcoholics in America that skew statistics.
The most common is youth who do not drink at all during week days just to have a weeks worth of liquor im one night. As Americans get older they either binge drink less and casually drink more or they don’t drink at all because of how bad they handled liquor in thier youth.
Can only speak my experience of course. Northeastern US, 35M.
In highschool it was secretly drinking in the woods, in cars outside of concert venues, sometimes a friend would have a party where their parents left and you’d have a rager there but that was maybe 2 times a year. Weirdly my house was a party house for my older sister, we had underage kids over and drinking all the time. But I was 6 years younger, NOT invited to that, and when I came of age I wasn’t interested anyways.
In college you’d pregame in the dorm til maybe 9 or 10pm. It was hard to get booze underage (21 in the states) so whatever you could get. I used to buy a Dasani bottle of shitty vodka for $10 and share that with my roommate. Later we had of-age friends to get us beer. My friend group didn’t go to frat houses but those were popular too. Instead we went to house/apartment parties at our friends’ houses where sometimes they had a keg and you’d pay $5 for a cup which was unlimited beer from the keg. Coke and adderall were also around if you were looking for it.
In my 20s things calmed down for most people (some people went off the rails). I got divorced mid-20s so I was single at that time and spent a lot of nights at bars, also in the dating scene. Tinder was pretty new then so everybody was feeling things out rather than now where – from what I hear – it’s much more efficient/less personal. It wasn’t as bleak as that sounds, you make friends with regulars who are good people and build a community. If you aren’t meeting women you still just see your friends, hear live music, have a good time. Didn’t really pregame then. You’d get home from work, do whatever errands you have, eat dinner if you don’t want to eat out. Then it’s maybe 6:30. Text your friend, see what they are up to, go there or not if you want to stay in.
In my 30s, I’ve been with my now-wife and we still have some of that appetite for partying. That is, we like to do it but not overdo it. We do NOT like going out to clubs where there’s just a mass of people and you can’t get a drink at the bar. We like quieter bars where we can talk to our friends and have some cocktails. We like dinner parties with some couples where the kids can play in the basement. We like BBQs with family with beers and burgers. My wife and I are unlike most people our age in that we go to a TON of shows/concerts even among younger bands, where we seem like the old folks in the crowd. We don’t care because we love music and supporting the local scene.