Aims: To reveal young Danes' main motive for pre-drinking and whether their motives and socio economic status can explain how much they pre-drink on an event-specific night out. Methods: A binary logistic and negative binomial regression models were used on a survey of 670 Danes (aged 18-35 years) conducted on-site in 24 bars, clubs and pubs in four cities and towns in Denmark. Results: Young males drink on average 12.3 and females 9.3 standard units (defined as 8g of pure ethanol) of alcohol before a night out. Pre-drinking to be social is the most prevalent motive. Although lower income levels cannot explain whether a young person will pre-drink on an event-specific night out, young people's income level and their motives explain the quantities they consume. Lower-earning males who pre-drank to save money consumed larger quantities of alcohol at home, but lower-earning females pre-drank larger quantities because they wanted to be out of control.