Bournemouth is not just beaches and OAPs

Those of us in Dorset live in rural-central, and sure, if you drive away from the main towns you might end up in what could pass as a plausible set for the Shire.

Fair enough.

For people wanting metropolitan vibes I get the lack of appeal.

However, in my head, Dorset locals have the best of everything – easy access to rural places, cities, the beach and one of the nicest and oldest forests in the South West of England – ironically named the New Forest.

Local young people seem to sometimes take all this for granted, maybe because after all, the demographic in Bournemouth has a greater older generation, but I think they forget the number of students at Bournemouth University (well over 16,000) and how the town has adapted especially for them.

The Winchester is infamous for its arty-student nights. A haven especially for AUB undergrads, it is not uncommon to find wacky fundraiser nights in support of graduate films, causes or dissertation projects.

Additionally, there are club nights all week; Halo Mondays, Toast Tuesdays, Cameo Wednesdays, Tribal Thursdays are sacred for some students, and that’s without counting all the weekend possibilities.

Although wild nights out and relaxed beaches may be nice, I feel like Bournemouth has more to offer to its residents than just that. As someone who likes originality, it really does surprise me how the most interesting places aren’t that well known.

For me, bespoke events in cafés are what make the most interesting nights out. One of the things that I like most about Bournemouth is that there are semi-secret places, which only few know about.

Hidden in Westbourne arcade, cinema café is a coffee shop with a basement cinema that operates after hours, where you can find screenings of independent movies and cult classics as well as modern films.

For those who like games, Bag of Holding night at FLIRT is the place to check out. Once a month groups are welcome to choose from masses of board games and play through the night.

I’m sure many become pleasantly surprised at the sheer amount of vintage events hosted all over the town. Bournemouth is genuinely vintage mad: from crazy kilo sales to travelling vintage fairs, every month sees at least one vintage event, and Pokesdowne must be the South’s holy grail of vintage, with around ten vintage shops all in the same (albeit long) street.

Keep walking down and find yourself to the Vintage Emporium and tearoom, a huge warehouse full of books, clothes, accessories, shoes and even furniture where you can find anything from 1970s fondue sets, Narnia-wardrobes, and even old tarot cards.

In addition to all the student nights and pubs, the town is absolutely packed full of gig venues. 60 Million Postcards is probably the cutest, most hipster one in town, which hosts some of the most unusual bands – Macaulay Culkin played there with his Velvet Underground cover band, famous for editing the bands lyrics to be about pizza (unsurprisingly called Pizza Underground).

Chaplin’s is another place people have to check out. Cool even from the outside, the bar has an underground basement stage that hosts live music every day of the week, all year around.

This is in addition to the town’s main gig venues; the BIC and the O2 Academy, which constantly form part of performer’s tours. From Bob Dylan to the Prodigy, from Blink 182 to McBusted (yes that’s right, McBusted’s rad, flying-delorean gig took part in Bournemouth town).

It’s not just gigs, it even has a wide arrange of theatres from the Pavillion to the Lighthouse. A hidden gem is Shelley Manor, a converted Theatre in what used to be the Frankenstein author’s house.  The theatre is known for its indie productions, which bring to life stories like The Little Prince. It’s also well known for projecting old-time movies in their original mm formats, something that becomes very rare to find outside of London.

So yeah, maybe having moved here as a small gap-toothed kid has made me immune from the locals’ hate – maybe that is the reason I bemusedly asked friends why they were so adamant leaving when the degree they wanted to study was better here than where they were moving.

I think the problem is that all these cool places don’t promote themselves as much, simply because they don’t have to. So when the boredom of nightclubs strike it does feel like there is nothing to do.

For the non-believers, they should give Bournemouth a chance, and maybe they won’t be able to deny that some things are actually really rad.