3 reasons every rave needs a chillout room

The other option is to leave

Every long night hits a point where you need to sit down. With nowhere to do that, your options are a corridor, a toilet queue, or going home. Acid house clubs kept a second room with sofas so you could stop without the night ending, and a whole genre came out of them.

Give your ears half an hour off

Hearing damage adds up over the whole night, loudness multiplied by time. Half an hour in a quiet room takes about an eighth off the sound your ears take that night. An hour takes off a quarter. The WHO lists a quiet room as one of six things a safe venue needs, and Switzerland has it in law for loud nights over three hours.

It is where you get past small talk

You meet people on the dancefloor. You cannot have a conversation there. Researchers measured what people caught in a packed bar. At 85 decibels they were already missing more than one word in five, and at 75 you have to be half a metre from someone’s face. A club can run right up to 100. The quiet room is where a chat turns into a conversation.

The other option is to leave. Give your ears half an hour off. It is where you get past small talk.