What would you call a party where people drink a lot in Portuguese?

Question

What would you call a party where people drink a lot in Portuguese?

Context:

We went to Peter's house for a birthday party, but later it turned into a real banger in the early evening.

suggestion: queima, festa, farra, festinha nervosa, bebedeira

Answer 1

I’m not aware of any Portuguese word specifically for ‘party with a lot of drinking going on’. If a phrase will do, you could use festa bem regada:

Fomos a um aniversário na casa do Peter, mas depois à noitinha aquilo deu numa festa verdadeiramente bem regada

Regar (Aulete) literally means ‘to water’ (plants), but it’s used informally to mean ‘to have drinks with’ (a meal, a party). Here are some examples of actual usage (my emphasis in all quotes):

“Esta tem sido uma festa bem regada”, confessa-nos um dos elementos. As garrafas, numa contagem rápida, aproximam-se da meia centena. Mas duas grades ainda estão intactas.
[«A volta no seu esplendor», Correio da Manhã (Portugal), 2005]

Norte Americanos […] deixaram roubar um computador com programação secreta depois de uma festa "bem regada" na companhia de prostitutas. [Agência Angola Press, 2002]

There are a couple of single words that by themselves won’t imply a party, but in the right context, as in your sentence, may convey the right meaning:

Fomos a um aniversário na casa do Peter, mas depois à noitinha aquilo deu numa verdadeira borracheira

Borracheira (Aulete) is an informal word for an action, talk, or state of a drunken person, from borracho (Aulete), ‘drunken’. So the emphasis here is on getting drunk, and someone hearing the sentence above might get the impression that things went a little down the hill, where propriety is concerned, at the party. You could off course use bebedeira (Aulete) instead. But while bebedeira simply means the ‘state of being drunk’, borracheira is broader, including silly things you do while drunk. Here’s from an advert for the “Borracheira da Engenharia”, a student party at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil):

A festa contará com decoração diferenciada da Ensaio Formaturas, venda de vodka com energético e novas surpresas! Não perca!
“VEM PRA BORRACHEIRA VOCÊ TAMBÉÉM... VEM!!”

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For a milder tone you could go for:

Fomos a um aniversário na casa do Peter, mas depois à noitinha aquilo deu numa verdadeira copofonia

Copofonia (Priberam) (seemingly not used in this sense in Brazil) is an informal word for the loud noise of people drinking or the drinking itself. It comes from copo (Aulete 5), ‘drinking glass,’ and a rather common metonym for alcoholic drink. So this version of the sentence puts more emphasis on drinking and lots of noise and activity, rather than getting drunk. It looks as though this word is not used in Brazil, but it has a long tradition in Portugal. There even has been an “Associação Técnica de Copofonia”, as attested by this membership card I found in blog Pombalinho:

Answer 2

In pt-BR, especially in southeastern Brazil, you might call it "uma festa rave" .

Depending on who organizes it, where it's held and who it going to attend it, one certain "festa rave" may have distinct characteristics from another. Certain characteristics, however, are always present:

• DJ's, loud electronic music, dancing, especially the kind that's popular with young people

• They usually take place in smallholdings, hangars, ranches, or rented mansions, on the outskirts of large cities. They can also take place on University Grounds. In this case, permission would have to be obtained previously from the administrative division and there would be restrictions about drugs and the students' age.

• They usually last around 12 hours but can go on for much longer, say, 72 hours.

• The public consists primarily of people under 30, males and females, usually students.

• There is always a lot of booze and ilicit drugs (ecstasy, cocaine, pot, etc). The latter may be used either openly or in a somewhat concealled manner.

A smaller event, but very popular with the college crowd, is "uma chopada" (from "chope", which means draught beer or keg beer in Brazil") where there is also a lot of booze, especially beer, tid-bits, electronic music, dancing, hard rock, etc. It's usually previously advertised on notice boards where there is also information about admission tickets. The event can take place wherever the organizers find more appropriate.

Other terms are also current usage: "uma festinha", "uma reunião", "uma noitada", etc.

As for "uma farra" it can also be used for a small event among friends, though it's a bit vague. It may include all the items I've mentioned for a rave party, plus casual sex, or just one of those items. As I've said, "uma farra" is too vague: one man's "farra" is another man's "innocent gathering".

Answer 3

"Cervejada" could be a term used in Brazil, although this is specific to beer (beer = cerveja).

It if is to drink too much in general terms, independently of the consumable alcoholic beverage, it could be called a "bebedeira". Notice however, this is not the name of the party in itself, yet it is a good word to describe drinking too much in a social manner.

Ex:

A festa ontem virou uma verdadeira bebedeira. Todo mundo ficou muito bêbado.