why i love going out out

i want to start this post by apologising to all my friends for my behaviour over the weekend - constantly reminding you that this was the last time halloween would fall on a saturday until 2037 was not cool whatsoever. and honestly, i don't know why i let tiktok make me think this was more of a big deal than necessary. everyone knows going out on a friday is faaaarrrr more superior because you get two days to be hungover the rest of the weekend to enjoy. 

me at yootha, feeling the music obvs,
in april 2026 - pic by minabihi

for me, in my current phase of life, the only thing that makes going out in liverpool enjoyable on a saturday is sonic yootha, a monthly club night for "homos, fauxmos, gender-blenders & part-time Brendas." each time that i plan to go, i wait all month to get dressed up and let loose with my pals, and
just boogie all night. sometimes, i think i am getting a bit too old to be dancing until the wee hours of the morning but to my surprise, i make it to the end of yootha at 4am, and i think i am a better woman for it. not only do i usually go with the same friends monthly, but the crowd that go to yootha are usually the same crowd who go monthly, which i love. it still gives a sense of mystery of, "who am i going to meet tonight", but with a sense of familiarity and community - awww. 

now, i definitely do not have the financial resources or mental capacity to be going out out every weekend. but enjoying a casual pint with my pals on the weekend, saving my energy for a proper night out once a month, is a lifestyle i try to sustain and will continue to do for as long as i can. i love music, i love dancing, i love my friends and i love going out out! i love how alive and free i feel. i love how connected to the music i am and how dancing under a discoball brings me closer to my pals.

over the past few years, i have came to terms with how truly important music is in my life. after seeing lorde live in manchester in november 2025, i realised that i'd now seen all the artists i listened to as a teenager. it's made me realise how cathartic it can be to dance and to feel all those emotions i had when i first listened to ribs but also to appreciate that i have grown up with lorde and she is turning my emotions into absolutely beautiful music. i really feel the music and i do get a physical reaction. cliché, i know, but really, my brother mocked me a few months ago for getting goosebumps while watching a tiktok of calvin harris at a festival, but it reminded me of when i first started going out with my friends. never did i think i would have a reaction like this to calvin harris but it threw me right back to standing around in a kitchen with my friends at a party we had waited all week for, or when we would hear the same song a few years later during our first dances at nightclubs. 

or, it reminded me of getting ready to go out, which is also one of the best parts about going out in the first place. when i was younger, i used to spend all day waiting to start my makeup and press play on my pres choons playlist because i knew once i was done, the night was beginning. at first, getting ready by myself was okay, but i couldn't wait for the adulthood i was promised by all my favourite 2000s movies and tv shows - the thought of getting ready with friends, dancing around to our favourite tunes to get us pumped and just having all the best expectations for the night. this halloween, my housemate and i had that same excitement, with just the added element of whimsy with our costumes. 

i think this is why i love going out out and why i want to continue shaking my ass in the club for as long as i can. the ritual of getting ready, the anticipation of dancing all night, and feeling the music with my friends. there's something so special about experiencing the same emotional reaction to a song because we both listened to it to get over heartbreak, or because it gave us the confidence we needed before a night out. you don't get to dance in the same way at the pub, and i do love going to the pub too, but the intimacy of dancing in a club with someone who means so much to you is unmatched. platonic or romantic. 

i think about the times i go out with my friends and we end up on mathew street, where the crowd tends to be a little older than the students that frequent concert square. i don't know what's in my future and how my weekends will look later in my life, but i know that i can still go out for a boogie and feel alive with my friends, regardless of what age we are. we'll hear calvin harris in 30 years time and think about how excited we were to finish our a-levels and go out out to celebrate. 

that being said, i think the art of flirting in the pub or the club needs to be reclaimed again. but that's a thought for another day.

until then,
laura xxx