2

I'm currently planning a work-related trip that involves a day-long event with clients. Typical events in the USA sometimes involve a happy hour event in the evening with food and drinks. Since the event I'm looking at planning is going to be located in Belarus, I started questioning if happy hours exist in Europe, and Eastern Europe in particular.

Are there any similar norms in Eastern Europe around happy hours (and in Belarus in particular)? I do know drinking culture differs between there and, say, the USA.

Improve this question
11
  • 2
    This is too broad. If one bar in the whole of eastern europe has a happy hour then the answer is yes but I'm guessing that answer is not very useful.
    – user59310
    Aug 24, 2018 at 6:52
  • 1
    In western Europe most towns and cities have them, in most of eastern Europe it's pretty cheap anyway.
    – BritishSam
    Aug 24, 2018 at 10:39
  • 2
    Are you asking about the general cultural practice of going out for drinks in the early evening, or the business question of whether bars typically offer discounts at that time of day?
    – Nate Eldredge
    Aug 24, 2018 at 13:35
  • 2
    @NateEldredge I'm asking about the general cultural practice. Is it commonplace for, as an example, a professional event to feature afternoon snacks and drinks?
    – joshin4colours
    Aug 24, 2018 at 13:38
  • 1
    @KeithLoughnane That's true of the title but the actual question is about norms, not merely existence. But I agree that "in Eastern Europe" is too broad.
    – David Richerby
    Aug 24, 2018 at 15:43

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

As far as my experience goes, you can expect to see Happy Hour-style discounts on workdays during business time (e.g. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 3PM to 6PM there would be different kinds of Happy Hour discounts on various kinds of drinks).

The rationale here, venues are completely empty after lunches has ended but before evening began. So they hope to capture at least some stray traffic.

This is rarely seen in the evenings because that's the time you can charge the full price, go into black. Still there can be some seasonal/weekday offerings on a narrow set of inventory.

This will apply to the part of Eastern Europe that's ex-USSR.

Improve this answer
1

With regards to a business practice.

I don't think it is commonplace that an event will end with food and drinks in the office.

  • If it is an event with a lot of loosely-related guests (such as a product announcement) you will expect to have a break with food and non-alcoholic drinks. You will not expect food and drinks after the event, on assumption that guests have their own things to do.
  • If it is an event with two parties (such as contract negotiation), I expect that members of hosting party will invite members of guest party to a local bar they know for an informal part of the meeting (getting to know each other better over drinks).

This, again, mostly applies to ex-USSR part of Eastern Europe.

Improve this answer

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