Day dances instead of clubbing: Why daytime events are booming now
Switzerland is losing clubs.
And at the same time, daytime events are in higher demand than ever before.
This is not a contradiction, but a shift. The audience has not disappeared. It is just celebrating at a different time of day.
The short answer
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of clubs in Switzerland fell from 466 to 249, almost a halving. In contrast, daytime formats such as daydances, brunch parties, and afternoon open-airs are growing. The reason lies in behavior: younger people drink less, plan their weekends more consciously, and do not want to come home at five in the morning on Sunday. For organizers, this means that revenue is shifting from the bar at night to the ticket during the day.
What the numbers on the decline of clubs really say
The trend is well-documented.
In Zurich, club revenues per capita fell by around 40 percent within five years. The Terminus in Olten closed after 31 years, with only a third of the former guests attending recently. The ROK Klub in Lucerne closed down at the end of May 2026 after 18 years.
Alexander Bücheli from the Swiss Bar and Club Commission sums it up: "The best times for clubs are long gone."
It is important to note what these numbers do not say. They do not say that nobody wants to party anymore. They say that the classic nightclub format is reaching fewer people than before.
The demand is there. It has just changed times.
Why daytime events are growing against the trend
Four shifts are driving the trend:
Less alcohol. Younger guests drink significantly less. A format that makes its revenue at the bar thus loses its calculation basis. A format that makes its revenue on tickets does not.
Predictability. A daydance from 2 PM to 10 PM fits into a weekend with workouts, brunch, and Monday morning. A club night until 5 AM no longer does.
The location becomes the event. Daytime events take place in locations that do not work at night at all: on a ship, by a lake, in a quarry. That is exactly what guests then share.
Lower threshold. In daylight, people come who would no longer go to a club at night, but love to dance in the afternoon.
We see this with the events we support. Formats like Offshore Events do not primarily sell a line-up. They sell an afternoon in a place you wouldn't otherwise get to.
Advance sales work differently than at night
A club thrives on spontaneous evening decisions. A daytime event does not.
Anyone who wants to party by a lake at 2 PM clarifies travel and group beforehand. This plays into the hands of advance sales, but not automatically. The trend towards late purchases also applies here; we described it in Why guests buy tickets later and later.
What you can make of this:
Price phases with a real reason to buy early, not just a discount name
Group tickets, because daytime events are almost never attended alone
A checkout that is completed on a mobile phone in under a minute
Wallet tickets, so nobody has to search their inbox at the entrance
Daytime events live off repeat buyers
The biggest difference from a club is not the time of day. It is the repetition.
A daydance audience is a community that joins in spring and stays until autumn. These people will come to the next edition if you reach them. And you can only reach them if you own the buyer data.
With a marketplace, it belongs to the marketplace. With your own ticket shop, it belongs to you. Then you write to your buyers from the last edition two weeks before sales start and sell the first price phase to people who have already been there.
How to turn this into a real community is explained in How to build a strong community.
What you need in ticketing for a daytime event
A daytime event has different requirements than a club night:
Compact admission. At a daydance, a large portion of the guests arrive in the same time window. Scanning must be fast and work even without a stable network.
Your brand, not the provider's. Daytime formats live off their own world. A third-party ticket shop in the checkout breaks that experience.
Clean tracking. Daytime events are heavily marketed via social media and creators. Without tracking, you won't know which channel is bringing in the tickets.
Predictable payouts. As bar revenue decreases, ticket revenue becomes your cash flow. At Beyond Tickets, we pay out weekly.
Beyond Tickets is white-label ticketing from Switzerland. The ticket shop runs under your brand and on your domain, and the buyer data remains with you.
What daytime events do not solve
Staying honest is worth it.
A daydance does not replace a club. Clubs are places for niches, for newcomers, and for long nights that an afternoon format cannot replicate. In addition, daytime events are weather-dependent, a real risk in the calculation.
Therefore, plan daytime formats as a supplement, not a replacement. A club with a strong daytime series stands on two legs instead of one.
Frequently asked questions about daydances and daytime events
What is a daydance?
A daydance is a dance event that takes place during the day, mostly in the afternoon and early evening. Typically, start times are between noon and 4 PM, and it ends between 8 PM and 11 PM. Musically, electronic music dominates. However, the concept also works as a brunch party, afterwork, or open-air afternoon.
Why are so many clubs closing in Switzerland?
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of clubs fell from 466 to 249. The reasons are increased costs, significantly lower beverage revenues, and a change in going-out behavior. Younger people drink less, meet more often privately, and tend to spend their weekends with sports or brunch rather than at night.
When is the daydance season in Switzerland?
The peak season is in spring and summer, roughly from March to September, as most formats take place outdoors or semi-outdoors. Advance sales often start in winter. Indoor daytime formats and brunch parties also continue through autumn and winter.
Does a daytime event need a different ticketing than a club?
The requirements differ. For a daytime event, a large portion of the guests arrive in a tight time window, so admission must be fast and capable of working offline. In addition, daytime series thrive on repeat buyers. Therefore, you need access to your buyer data to market the next sales launch to your existing audience.
Conclusion
The decline of clubs in Switzerland is real, and the numbers are clear. But the desire to party together has not disappeared. It has shifted.
Those who go along with this shift sell fewer drinks and more tickets. This is precisely why ticketing is changing from a side issue to the most important revenue channel.
If ticket revenue is your main revenue, the ticket shop must not belong to someone else.
Ready for your next daytime series? Set up your own ticket shop in just a few minutes.
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