Singles in Tilburg: where to meet people

Where do you meet singles in Tilburg?

That Tilburg was once the wool city of the Netherlands is still most visible in the nineteenth-century factory villas between the modern shopping streets. In 1871 the city counted one hundred and twenty-five woollen cloth factories, and when the textile industry left in the second half of the twentieth century, the workers' neighbourhoods stayed. That is exactly what makes the city work for meeting people now: everything lies close together, and the centre is built for walking, not for driving through.

Locals call their city Kruikenstad, and it is one of the youngest cities in the country. More than a fifth of the residents is between fifteen and twenty-nine, and Tilburg University counts almost nineteen thousand students this academic year. That gives the city a weekday rhythm that much larger cities lack: there is something on almost every night, and it is never a long walk to the next address.

The Heuvel, the Heuvelstraat and the Korte Heuvel

The Heuvel and the Piusplein

Nightlife concentrates around the Heuvel and the Piusplein, where the cafés and terraces sit close together. The Heuvel with its church is the classic centre point: a square that belongs to the terraces in the afternoon and to the pubs at night. If you want to join a table, this is where it happens, because the doors are close enough to keep things spontaneous.

The Korte Heuvel

The Korte Heuvel is the street where the night starts late and ends later: small pubs and venues with a DJ, side by side, with a crowd that mixes. That mixture is exactly what makes it the easiest street in the city if you come alone. You walk in, you listen, and you join wherever it fits.

013: the stage of the city

At the edge of the centre, by the Pieter Vreedeplein, stands 013, the city's large pop venue. The hall programmes national and international acts all year round, and the club nights after the concerts run until late. In Tilburg a concert is what a terrace day is in summer: a natural reason to talk to people you do not know.

The Tilburgse Kermis

Every year in July Tilburg builds the largest fair of the Benelux: more than two hundred and thirty attractions along a route of one and a half kilometres, with over a million visitors in ten days. The fair does not just attract families but the whole city, and its most famous day is Roze Maandag, Pink Monday, which has grown into one of the largest Pride celebrations of the country. For singles the fair week is when Tilburg is at its most open: out on the street, between the music, where nobody needs a reason to talk.

What singles in Tilburg want to know

Is Tilburg a good city for singles?

Yes. The city is young, compact and affordable enough to go out often, and the university keeps bringing in new people. The centre is small enough to run into the same face twice, which rarely happens in bigger cities.

Where do you go when you go out alone?

To the Heuvel or the Korte Heuvel. The terraces around the Heuvel are for the start of the evening, the Korte Heuvel for later. A concert at 013 is the best option if you want a night that produces conversations on its own.

What is the best week of the year?

The fair week in July, above all Roze Maandag. The whole city spills over, and the atmosphere is one in which nobody stays alone. If you prefer it calm, pick a weekend in spring or early autumn, when the terraces are open without the fair crowds.

Can you meet people in Tilburg if you are no longer a student?

Absolutely. More than a fifth of Tilburg is young, but the majority of the city is not. The pubs around the Heuvel and events like the fair attract every age group, and the quieter venues in the centre are exactly where thirty-somethings and forty-somethings find each other.

Is there an LGBT nightlife scene?

Yes, most visibly during Roze Maandag, which draws tens of thousands of visitors every year. Outside that day, the LGBT nights mostly take place in the smaller venues around the Heuvel and the Korte Heuvel.

Read more

Singles in Breda, singles in Eindhoven and what a singles event actually is. All on adamevening.com.

There is plenty to find outside this city as well: on adamevening.com/blog you can read where to meet singles in the other cities where Adam & Eve operates, from The Hague to Groningen. The short versions of those city guides give you the going-out spots, the festivals and the events of each city.

Adam & Eve singles events

Adam & Eve runs singles events in Amsterdam, where we host editions most often, and elsewhere in the Netherlands: from a drink to a dinner and from a beach edition to a gallery night. Upcoming editions are in the calendar.

Singles only dinner & party

See the upcoming editions

Every edition follows the same shape. A welcome drink, a dinner where you switch tables between courses, then the party. In Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, all year round.

See all events