Advice on layout/presentation of information to user in web page

Question

I'm developing a website that helps connect nightlife promotion companies with consumers. Each night life company hosts events and various venues and on various nights. I want to give users/consumers a page where they can quickly see

1. What venues the night life companies host events at AND
2. What days of the week these events are hosted on.

I would like this page to be clear and intuitive. I've created two quick layout mockups and I'm wondering if these are good designs or if there is a superior way of presenting this information.

The horizontal bar in the bottom of the two pictures is meant to indicate the 'current' day of the week.

--------- AND ---------

Answer 1

The second one is extremely disorienting. As as US citizen I am much more keen understanding dates from left to right. (Like in your first mock)

The reason is that most people view time linearly. And viewing calendars conditions one to think about time and planning time in that same fashion.

Go for the first option.

Answer 2

My concern with either design is the ability to cope with multiple nightlife companies hosting multiple events on the same dates - AND - the possible sparseness of events of a nightlife company that only caters at weekends for example.

See for example the Ministry of Sound website which has a sliding view which neither squeezes information nor leaves empty gaps.

I'm not saying this is a perfect design - it could do with the weekday for starters, but the key is flexibility rather than trying to fit variable data into a rigid format.