What does "botellón" mean?

A big outdoor drinking session in a park or square.

Country: 🇪🇸 Spain
Say it: boh-teh-YOHN
Register: Safe anywhere

How it's actually used

A Spanish institution, especially among students: buy cheap drinks from a shop, meet in a plaza or park, stay for hours, go out afterwards. *Hacer botellón* is the verb. Cities regulate it, which tells you how big it is.

Examples

Hacemos botellón antes de salir. We’ll do a botellón before we go out.
Había un botellón enorme en el parque. There was a huge street-drinking crowd in the park.

Where it comes from

From *botella*, bottle, with the augmentative *-ón*: a big-bottle gathering.

Before you say it

Not an insult, but it is technically restricted or fined in many Spanish cities.

Now actually use it out loud

Reading a definition isn't the same as saying it to someone. Lingo Kaiava is a voice tutor set to Spanish (Spain) Spanish — it uses botellón the way locals do, corrects you in the moment, and never "fixes" the way real people actually talk into textbook Spanish (Spain) Spanish.