back_to_the_outback_2.exe: The Xmas Y2K Reunion

back_to_the_outback_2.exe: The Xmas Y2K to 2010s Reunion

Saturday 19 December 2026 · The Outback, Douglas
4pm–9pm · Last entry 8pm

Before the group chat, there was a text (or an MSN nudge) saying “Outback?” and an outfit you genuinely thought you looked the business in. Top Shop or Miss Selfridges in The Strand, then you’d spend ages getting ready, and the evidence was either a blurry photo of six people and someone’s thumb or a 200-photo Facebook album.

If you were coming from up north, that meant the number 3 into town. Your mates got on at the Manxie, the top deck was the pre-drinks, and the whole lot of you were clomping down the stairs before it had even stopped.

“Please sit down till the bus stops, THANK YOU.”

We did it last year. You lot bought the DJ (me, Ryan) so many pints I headbutted the balcony railing packing my stuff away. By the end of the night there were LED foam batons all over Snapchat and half the kebab shops in Douglas.

So we're doing it again, this time with the 2000s and 2010s.

Timbaland to Clubland, R&B one minute and pure cheese the next, with the OB favourites in there too. Teenage Dirtbag and Land Down Under will get their outing. We know where we are.

Dress up if you fancy it. This was the decade Kelly Rowland tried to text Nelly on Excel, so the bar’s not high. If the Henleys hoodie or the going-out top is still knocking about at the back of the wardrobe, this is its night out.

Put your phone in your pocket and have a dance. It’s the Isle of Man, someone will tell you what you got up to anyway.

Get onto the ones you used to go with, especially the one who’s been saying “we need a night out” since the last one. You’ve got till Christmas to recover.