We tried socially-distanced Wednesday Cindies, and it was actually kinda a vibe

Wednesday Cindies, in line with hundreds of other clubs up and down the country, has opened its doors as a sit down club, so you can still get your mid-week, sit-down, socially-distanced boogie. Naturally, and in the name of serious journalism, we had to give it a try:

Ticket Trouble?

After a brief interval of Ticketbridge lads (and ladettes) posting videos of themselves sinking pints, for supposedly no reason whatsoever, Ticketbridge has become eerily silent. No longer is Becky from Emma promising to sell her first child in an attempt to get tickets, and for this week at least, we were sourced with a table at relative ease (although it may have helped that one of our editors was a Cindies rep). Each college is allocated two tables: one at Cindies and one at Vinyl, with both clubs operating as one club night, with a handful of tables dedicated to the Hawks and Ospreys. 

Tables are £36 and can seat up to 6, but we decided to share the price between fewer of us to keep things #SociallyDistanced. Doors open at 6:00pm, with last entry at 6:45pm. This meant that our pres consisted of 20 minutes of downing cheap wine before sprinting to make it on time. Pro tip: start pres at five and make sure to eat before you down anything. The great thing about the early closing time is the luxury of being tucked up in bed before 11pm for a full eight hours sleep. And don’t worry, you can still make it to Gardies if you’re smart and leave ten minutes early. 

When you have a Tab meeting at 5 and a club night at 6 (Photo credits: Charissa Cheong)

Covid-19 precautions

Queuing all the way down to outside Pret and debating whether or not to just give up and go to Van of Life is a thing of the past. Upon arrival our table name was checked by the bouncer, allowing for contactless entry. Queues were split into segments with 2 metres marking on the floor, and at the front of the queue, we were briefed by the manager on the rules of the evening. 

Masks had to be worn at all times when not seated at the table, including in the queue and the toilets. Hand sanitiser was provided at multiple entry points, as was the NHS check-in QR code, which each party was reminded to scan. 

Wash your hands you detty pig! (Photo credits: Katie Thacker)

Each party was shown to their seats and seated on a picnic bench, socially distanced throughout the club. This is your boogie space (which must only be done sat down) for the evening, making a nice change from the endless pushing and shoving, and of course, feeling the soles of your shoes stick to the VK-soaked dance floor.

Speaking of VKs…

Wednesday Cindies isn’t Wednesday Cindies without endless rounds of everyone’s favourite J2O-tasting alcoholic beverage. This term, the four VKs for £10 deal has been upscaled to six for £15. No longer will you have to queue endlessly at the bar, hoping intense eye contact and waving at the bar staff will magically speed things up. A bartender came to our table to take our order, and we made the super classy decision to order as many rounds as possible in one go,  resulting in the drinking of far too many Jaegerbombs in one go than is advisable. 

Oh how I’ve missed the familiar cry of “is my tongue green?” (Photo credits: Katie Thacker)

The infamous smoking area

Everyone’s favourite part of Cindies – whether for smoking or for shameless “networking”. The smoking area wasn’t open until 7pm (the time I presume Covid goes to bed) and the number of people outside was monitored and restricted, to ensure social distancing could be upheld. 

Toilet break 

Arguably the nicest surprise of the evening was being able to visit the toilets without having to spend ten minutes scouting out the one cubicle without vomit in (whether this was true by the end of the evening we cannot confirm). The whole area was largely quiet with no ugly crying, gossipping, or screaming, so we thought we’d take a moment to stop for some cute mirror selfies: 

The drunk mirror selfies are back and we’re not mad! (Photo credits: Katie Thacker)

Cloak room disappearance? 

Another pleasant surprise was being able to save our £2s on the cloakroom, alleviating the need to madly scramble for change beforehand. The table arrangement meant we could save ourselves the usual annoyance of having to queue to hand our coat in when Taylor Swift’s Love Story was playing, or risk losing it on the booths. It was also a new experience being able to actually stand in the smoking area without shivering in a tiny tube top, especially now that we couldn’t cuddle up to our mates for warmth! 

And of course, the music  

Lots of things have changed since the pandemic, but the notorious Wednesday Cindies playlist was not one of these things. Our ears were blessed once again with the sounds of Teenage Dirtbag, Mr Brightside and Hey, Soul Sister, and for one brief moment, it felt like nothing had changed. After years of hearing rumours about songs only playing for 45 seconds due to licensing issues, we were finally sober enough to put this to the test, and set a timer. In an unexpected turn of events, we are pleased to inform you that some songs lasted an entire 2 minutes 20 seconds. 

The shock and horror of getting to hear the second verse of a song (Photo credits: Charissa Cheong)

So what did everyone think? 

Speaking to various attendants the following day, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive: 

Luke Schorah, a second year student from Downing college told the Tab Cambridge “it’s pretty good to be honest. Better than I thought it would be. I was the only person in my friendship group who was willing to come test it out, but now I’ve been, I’d definitely recommend”, with another student commenting that “it felt no different to a pub to be honest, if anything potentially safer as the staff were very hot on making sure people were following the restrictions”.

A Homerton college student reported that “overall I thought Cindies’ attempt at a socially distanced club night was very admirable. Obviously closing at 10pm was not ideal but this was navigated by starting the evening earlier. Me and my friends had a lot of fun”. 

Another student told us “I’m so happy to be back. Cindies is my whole personality and I feel I wasn’t who I was without it”. 

As we’re sure you can tell from our extremely blurry and low-quality pics, three of us certainly had a good night out, and we really hope we didn’t embarrass ourselves too much in our glaringly bright Tab T-shirts!