When I was in teenager, I spent a summer in Denmark. My cousins taught me that the Swedes were culturally the crazy, partying, drinking Scandinavians. The Danes, as they believed it, were a more practical, and fun loving society.
So when I heard that a new trend in Swedish workday behavior involved attending lunchtime raves, I thought, “but of course.”
What better way to shake off office politics, and unkink yourself from the cubical hunch than be surrounded by strobe lights, techno music, and fist-pumping, sweat-dripping office workers?
The trend started in 2010 when 14 friends reportedly began a lunchtime gathering their office garage. They called their gathering "Lunch Beat." Today, Lunch Beat events are being arranged by a core group of organizers at venues around Sweden, attracting up to 600 people each time. The gatherings are organized as nonprofit events, and have 60-minute long DJ sets—the standard “lunch hour,” The raves even include a brown back lunch distributed at the disco.
The party starts promptly at noon and ends at 1 p.m. sharp.
The idea of workers taking an hour out in the middle of the day to let loose and shake off some office politics seems like a practical (almost Danish) idea to me.
Source: Slate
