BPM: The True "Welcome Back to the Bubble"

Image credit: BPM MUSIC COLLECTIVE @bpm.sta

If I asked you to describe the perfect night out in St Andrews, you would probably mention a Hugo Spritz in Central, a few games of pool at the Rule, or maybe just a pint at Aikman’s. No matter where the night begins, though, we know how it ends. We will all, inevitably, find ourselves in the same place: our beautiful, exasperating club 601. 

As a collective student body, we have baptised it “the Union,” “the Onion,” or even “6-0-Fun.” Whatever name we choose, we always come back. We come back despite that fresher who spilled half his Pablo on you during your favouriteBOP, despite the time you lost your jacket because you refused to queue for the cloakroom, and despite the eternal line at the Main Bar when all you really needed were those shots to get the night going. And, of course, Refreshers’ Week is no exception. Whether it’s Haus, Rodeo Night, or “Welcome Back to the Bubble,” we all end up buying at least one ticket. I, for example, decided to go to BPM with my friends. It was a Tuesday. The weather was awful. There were countless other things we could have done. Yet, somehow, we still ended up at the Union. 

It wasn’t a comfortable Friday night out, the kind where you can stay up late knowing the next day will be spent rotting in bed. It was a Tuesday — and somehow, that made it even better. After a first day filled with awkward “how have you been?” conversations and careful syllabus-reading that confirmed we would, in fact, have to lock in this semester (no, really, this time), we needed something to take our minds off the overwhelming feeling of being back in the bubble. BPM offered exactly that.  

Even more importantly, the ticket pricing reflected genuine student budgets. Multiple price tiers allowed flexibility and ensured that everyone had something to look forward to before they even arrived back in St Andrews. 

Standing right beneath the DJ booth, singing the lyrics to my favourite song, it felt as though we were all singing the same thing: we’re back. After being away from each other for over a month, we were once again in the same room, with the same people, singing the same songs. It was a genuinely magical moment. In the Main Bar, I could always find people I knew to have a drink with. It was filled to just the right capacity: enough people to mingle and socialize, but never so crowded that you couldn’t even get a drink. Moving into the main club room, the music was a mix of rap, hip hop, and house, perfectly catering to every taste. At the bar next to the stage, countless bartenders were always ready to give their full attention as you ordered. And if you grew tired of the BPM-driven music, you could slip into the room behind the Main Bar, where karaoke was in full swing, and offer your own rendition of “Piano Man” or “Firework.” The point is, no matter which room of the Union you found yourself in, you were always having fun.  

The music was incredible, of course, but that wasn’t what drew me to buy the ticket. I imagined the crowd, the movement, the shared excitement of seeing each other again, and the desire to feel like university students once more. I pictured catching up with friends in the smoking area, sharing gossip over a drink, and dancing so hard that our feet ached the next day. The energy was so electric that no one stood still. Even the smoking area was quieter than usual, as people kept pushing back inside to get closer to the DJ set, shouting every lyric whilst the DJs shouted them even louder. Honestly, it was hard to tell who was having more fun: them or us.  

St Andrews is such a small, lively, town, yet it can feel lonely at times. Coming back, we are never quite sure how the semester will unfold: whether our new class schedules will work, whether living with our flat mates will be just as wonderful as last semester, whether everything will fall back into place. As I danced under the coloured lights, euphoric with the energy around me, I realised there was nothing to worry about. BPM was the perfect reminder that, in St Andrews, no matter how long we’ve been away, we always find our way back home.