Enjoying Essex : nights out

Bowling - Cinema - Rollerworld - Students' Union - Bars and Clubs - Quasar - Live Entertainment

Students are well-known for drinking…a lot! But this doesn't mean everyone chooses to spend their student lives (and their student loans) on alcohol. This is a choice you make for yourself, but be assured whether you decide to drink alcohol or not – there is plenty of fun ways to spend your evenings!

Bowling

A really fun way to spend an evening is at a bowling alley - play some air hockey while you wait for a lane, find out which of your friends are the most competitive and try and fluke a few strikes! Whether you drink alcoholic beverages is completely up to you –  but whatever you decide you're guaranteed a good laugh. In Colchester there is a multi-lane Tenpin Bowling alley to whet your appetite for strikes! In Southend there is a tenpin bowling alley in the Kursaal complex on the seafront.

Cinema

There are normally loads of great films including all the latest releases at the local Odeon Cinemas – you can exploit the students’ discounts, and remember if you’re lucky enough to have an Orange phone contract you can get two-for-one on a Wednesday simply by texting FILM to 241 from your Orange handset. Just make sure you remember to take a big bag and buy your munchies somewhere else before you go in. Cinema sweet prices aren’t cheap!

Rollerworld

Colchester is home to the famous Rollerworld, well-known to be Europe’s finest Roller-skating rink!! Roller-skating is good fun although watch out for the kids, knock one over and the others follow like dominos. You don't want a whole load of angry Mums after you!

Students' Union

Dress up in your old school uniform and reminisce with old style sweets. Go and watch a big name DJ like Trevor Nelson, or a live act; recent performances include Sophie Ellis-Bextor and the Twang. Try your hand at bingo (you will soon see why it is such a hit with the over 60s!) or cha cha cha down to a Latin night. Go to a different themed night every evening. Go for a quiet drink in one of the many bars, or dance until the early hours of the morning in the Sub Zero Nightclub (officially recognised as the 'Best Student Venue in the UK'.  The choice is yours….and it’s endless! You can check out their upcoming events here.

Bars and clubs

Colchester and Southend both have a range of bars and clubs to suit all tastes and needs. If you fancy a quiet, relaxing drink at a waterfront you can easily pop down to Wivenhoe if you are at the Colchester Campus. For chilling out on a warm summer evening. Leigh-on-Sea, a cosmopolitan fishing village close to the Southend Campus is perfect for the same reason.

Colchester and Southend have their fair share of chain pubs and bars such as Edwards, O’Neills, Yates’s, Wetherspoons and Varsity, as well as some different and more individual places. Popular student haunts in Colchester include the Purple Dog, Twisters, V Bar and the Vodka Bar. While Southend students can enjoy half-price cocktails before 9pm at Bar 29, and other bars such as The Mews, Bakers Bar, Storm, The Alex and Saks.

Monday night is a popular night out for students. If you're at the Colchester Campus you'll find most students head to Sexy Penny’s, a well known student night at Silk Road. Drinks are just £1 all night. If your student loan is rapidly running low, you may even be able to get some work helping to promote the night. Alternatively if you fancy going a bit further a field on a Monday night, then there is a popular student night which takes place at Dukes Genesis Nightclub in Chelmsford. Happy Mondays’ is the big student night at Mayhem Nightclub in Southend. You can dance the night away to Indie, Rock, Metal Punk and Acoustic music. With free admission before 10pm and £2 drinks all night – you really can’t go wrong!

Both towns have a range of nightclubs. In addition to Mayhem, Southend plays host to Talk Nightclub; perfect if you are into commercial club music. It has a great sound system, lighting and excellent DJs. Head down there on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night if you're after Dance Floor Anthems, RnB, Funky House and Club Classics. If this doesn’t sound like your thing and you would feel much more comfortable with a bit of cheesy 80s music then Reflex will be perfect for you.

Colchester’s Route Nightclub holds a student night every Thursday where entrance is just £3 with your NUS card, and drinks are £1.50 each before midnight! The brand new Liquid and Envy which opened in Colchester last month has a crazy student night every Tuesday and plays the best in Dance, Chart, Indie and Rock & Party tunes, alongside crazy stage games and cheap drinks!

If you’re at the Colchester Campus, and you enjoy a few drinks then leaving Essex without doing the ‘Wiv Run’ at least once would be criminal. This is where you pay every pub in Wivenhoe a visit for at least one drink and is often on the social event calendar of clubs and societies. To make it even more interesting, sometimes the ‘Wiv Run’ is completed whilst having your ankle tied to somebody else’s, or dressed as golfers! Good job the people who live in Wivenhoe and aren’t students are used to it by now!

If there's not enough here to keep you entertained, Colchester and Southend are close enough to London for a night out there every now and again! So you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding where to do go out in the evenings.

Quasar

Both Southend and Colchester are blessed with a Quasar! As it states on the website, ‘the worlds favourite laser game’! The game where everyone runs around in the dark with laser guns! So why not spend an evening shooting, attacking and ganging up on the people you love?

Live entertainment

Both Southend and Colchester have a range of venues offering live music. If you’re located at the Colchester Campus and you like live bands (Rock, Metal, Indie, Punk, Jazz, Folk, Country and World Music etc), comedy nights, club nights, alternative theatre productions, dance, and live art, then you’ll definitely want to pay the Arts Centre a visit!

In Southend we have recently had gigs from the Klaxons and La Roux at Chinnery’s, a great venue along the seafront, and the Cliffs Pavilion Theatre offers more live music acts, shows and comedians. Recent performances include Lee Evans, Hairspray, Dizzie Rascal and the Sugababes.

If you fancy broadening your cultural horizons then the Pavilion also hosts a range of ballets, operas and of course, plays. The Mercury Theatre in Colchester also puts on regular performances.