This symposium details the drinking and drug‐taking habits of people (n>10,000) entering and leaving night‐time entertainment districts (NED) in city, rural and regional locations in Queensland, Australia. We demonstrate that alcohol preloading habits predict end of night intoxication better than demographics (age and body mass index) and personality variables. We go on to demonstrate that the recently introduced legislation restricting alcohol sales in NEDs has resulted in greater preloading and, hence, more intoxication within the NEDs. We also present data regarding preloading with drugs in the NED and find that those who preload with drugs (being predominantly ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis) also have higher alcohol intoxication scores at entry to the NED. With these results in mind we then look at people’s motivations for preloading and find that the provided motivations change depending upon when you ask people why they preload. In contrast to the often cited reason of ‘to save money’, we find that socialisation and personal enhancement motivations better account for people’s behaviour. Together, these presentations provide a compelling case to change interventions currently used to reduce binge drinking and drug taking in NEDs (i.e. restrictive alcohol practices and interventions aimed at the end of the night). Instead, we argue for targeting the beginning of the night and encouraging people into the NEDs earlier.