PARIS, 28 September 2003 — It is not quite nightfall and the queues of young people lined up outside the “Seven to One” club in the heart of Paris bizarrely are wearing business suits and carrying briefcases.
Working hard and playing hard has always been tricky but a new midweek social solution, the “after-work” party, is helping Parisian professionals beat the system.
These parties that start and finish early have become hugely popular with the city’s hungry young career hounds, anxious for a bit of after-office fun without the next morning’s consequences. Sparky 20-somethings can party hard without compromising their promotion prospects.
“Seven to One” was the first such club night in Paris and this week celebrated its 100th party in the city. As the name suggests the night starts at 7 p.m. and ends before other Parisian clubs really get started.
So since April 2001, every Wednesday and Thursday night some 1,300 bright young things pay eight euros to party the evening away in Paris’ second district. Queues of up to 200 people are not unusual and the suits, smart heels and computer bags sported by those in line indicate that they have only just escaped their desks.
Animated chatter, surreptitious lip-glossing and cheeky eye-meets make it clear these businessmen and women are determined to forget their towering in-trays, litany of unanswered e-mail and office politics.
Carole Dixsaut, one of the organizers, said the idea was imported from Germany where after-work parties have been popular for some time. Her clientele is 80 percent single and composed of “party-animals who don’t want to go to bed too late”. On the seemingly inherent contradictions between night owls and early birds, she said that for ambitious worker bees “it’s not possible to go to bed at 5 a.m.”.
“Seven to One’s” ethic of hedonism without the hangover has spawned imitators and there are now numerous midweek parties across the city.
“Work in Ze City”, “L’AfterWork” and “The Bacchus Project” also cater to the Cinderellas of the Parisian clubbing circuit, allowing party people who have to dash home around midnight and head back to the grindstone the next morning to have a ball.
Late nights at the office, TV dinners and other sensible school-night options pale into comparison with the offer of an early evening nightclub. The concept provides hardcore clubbing without the hard hours, allowing hungry execs to let their hair down and still get to bed in time to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at their bureaus. Vincent, who works in IT, said he enjoys it “for my conscience sake. It’s the idea of not going home at 6 a.m. and turning up the next morning with bags under my eyes”.
The atmosphere at a “Seven to One” event is reminiscent of a school disco — a curious mix of excitement and euphoria at being allowed to go out alongside a pressing awareness of the approaching 1 a.m. curfew. Said Francis, a 28-year-old marketing professional with an air of George Clooney and a very sharp suit: “I’m not married and I’d like to meet some new friends, but what’s really good about this place is the atmosphere; people can talk to each other here”.
By 11 p.m. the dance floor was packed with sweaty clubbers. Gangs of newfound friends sang along to 80s hits and the predominantly single status of the group was starting to show.
It perhaps was hardly surprising in a city of 800,000 singles that the neat office attire of earlier had become somewhat ruffled, with silk ties stuffed in pockets and prim blouses unbuttoned further than for a business meeting.
Celine, 24, said she was there to find the love of her life but hadn’t had much luck so far. Frank, 29, works in the restaurant business and came with a group of friends to try out the concept. “We’re those kind of blokes, we work, we don’t want to go home late and we want to party!” he said.