Rococos? As a Second Year?!?

Harry Penrose explores why many second and third years give Rococos a miss.

12 years ago

Exeter Penrose Rococos Thursday night

Thursday evening: nearly the end of the week, and for most, only a solitary noon seminar on Friday stands between them and the weekend. Come Thursday evening, the most pressing matter facing Exeter students is the choice: Mosaic, Rococos or Arena?

However, the popular decision by many second and final year students is to immediately discard Rococos as a potential option. Why is it that ‘Cocos’ has become an exclusively first year venue?

We all remember our own fresher experiences, and as far as I can tell, the majority of students do so fondly. Perhaps it is the ‘Rococo guarantee’ aspect that has made it so popular amongst freshers. You''re guaranteed £1 vodka Red Bull, you're guaranteed to see a lot of your nearest and dearest, and you're guaranteed that when you’re inevitably pairing off towards the end of the night, the noughties song of the decade "Mr Brightside" will unfailingly be making an appearance.

Unsurprisingly though, attending the same event week after week is bound to eventually make even the most devoted Rococos goer wonder about the other options on offer. Each week the podium that you and your mates love to dominate seems to get smaller, and getting knocked around on the dance floor as you go in for the kill becomes less and less amusing.

You begin to ask questions of the sticky carpet and the size of the smoking area, and your task to evade the gents toilet attendant’s aggressive salesmanship becomes more and more tiresome. It must be that at some point, regulars either jump ship to the edgier offering at Mosaic, or simply acknowledge that their days in Cocos are numbered, and so proceed to make the most of it.

Come June, first years must be sick of Rococos and decide not to return in their second and final years.Even towards the bitter end of first year, many freshers continue to attend. As a result of the mass exodus of Rococos veterans who served their time in their first year, the place has become an exclusive sanctuary for freshers.

For one night a week, freshers know they are safe from bolting orders being screamed at them by older, wife-beater clad boozed up social goers, and perhaps more importantly, freshers are also safe from the ruthless food-chain sharking antics often encountered in Timepiece, where the lowest in the pile are beaten to the punch by their more senior counterparts. Surely this plays a part, too?

So I’ll leave it with you to decide where you stand. I absolutely loved going to Rococos as a fresher, but just as it is no longer acceptable for me to go out the night before an exam and scrape through on 41%, us second years also can’t regularly choose Rococos as the Thursday night destination. Freshers, enjoy it while you can!

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