It’s an unusually overcast day in Madrid, but the grey weather hasn’t dampened the atmosphere at Cafe Comercial, a historic venue where YSL Beauty is hosting its first-ever Block Party. The first of a series of curated events, with instalments to come in New York and London, it starts at 4pm and ends at 10. This reflects the growing centrality of daytime parties to gen Z social life: in 2026, going out out no longer requires staying up past your bedtime. 

It’s still early when I arrive at the venue, as a crowd of stylish young Madrilenos stream in and out of its grand revolving doors,  but the atmosphere inside feels like a club at peak time. Featuring sets from local DJ Ismaelo, Paris-based Camporeale and headliner Carlita, who is Turkish-Italian, the music offers an eclectic mixture of everything from hip hop and house to afrobeats and baile funk. The shift towards day parties is often spoken about in tandem with a rise in sobriety, but at the Block Party, this is optional: waiters in elegant white shirts are serving cocktails and sangria, along with soft drinks and pink sugar-dusted churros (a classic post-club staple in Madrid). In a spin on the ‘block party’ theme, the space is decorated with concrete slabs, which form the base of the DJ booth and add a touch of brutalist modernism to its air of old-world glamour.

The day party trend is also changing how we approach beauty: you’re not probably going to wear the same beat to a daytime event as you would to a grungey warehouse rave or an evening soiree at the Dorchester. According to Sam Visser, make-up artist and YSL’s Global Make-Up artist, the secret to a great day party look is thinking about “the impact of your eyes or your lips, or whatever that small detail is that you decide to put on your face. It's not so much about contouring and the structural elements of your face, and more about expression.” You might want to include some kind of statement or “daring” element, as you would at a regular party, while going for a more naturalistic look in terms of complexion.

While Sam stresses that there are no hard and fast rules, he suggests it might be a good idea to use fewer products on your skin during daylight. “You might just want to have a little bit of brightness on your eyes, like using a Touche Éclat,” he says, referring to YSL’s face illuminator pen, which provides a more natural touch. But the most important thing is going for a look that makes you feel good. “You’re at a party, you want to feel hot, you want to feel like you're gonna have fun. I’m not one to say that you shouldn’t wear a full beat to a day party.”  The only universal rule, if you’re out in the sunlight, is that you don’t want to get burned: “sunscreen first – that’s your barrier – then you can go ahead with whatever else.”

There are various reasons behind the day party boom, some of which are location-specific (the strict licensing laws which inhibit nightlife in London, for example, aren’t an issue in a city like Madrid, where clubs typically don’t get going until 3am and even your grandmother is out pounding the streets at midnight). But one common factor is that young people have become increasingly invested in wellness and fitness, which for many includes early bedtimes, sleep tracking tech like Oura Rings, and other lifestyle techniques sometimes grouped under the banner of “sleep-maxxing”. If reliably getting a solid eight is important to you, you're probably not going to want to jeopardise that by staying out until the birds start singing.

Not every day party is a sober matcha rave or a post-10k disco at a running club, but even if you’re engaging in less wholesome forms of hedonism, there’s still a big difference between being tucked up in bed by midnight and stumbling in the door at 6am. The latter is almost certainly going to haunt you for the rest of the working week, never mind the following day – there is no regret quite like waking up past midday on what feels like the sunniest Saturday of the year, haunted by the sound of children laughing, ice cream vans and smug couples strolling past your window with a coffee.

As YSL’s Block Party shows, day parties can be the perfect compromise, offering all the glamour of a big night on the town, without sabotaging your body clock or ruining your Sunday. It’s not about being boring - a charge frequently and unfairly levelled at gen Z – but about having a less disruptive, more life-enhancing fun.