Coming from NI, where my closest cities are Derry and Belfast, I can say that Norwich is certainly not a small town. It has the best of both worlds, the shops and night life of a large city but the community feel of a small town.
The campus itself is very community like. You'll struggle not to see someone you know when walking through it. Sure, the buildings are all concrete and grey, which is something I absolutely hate, however at UEA it doesn't seem to be a problem at all. There is so much green around the campus, be it the trees or the grass and everything in-between, not to mention the lake as well. For example if you go up to the top floors of the library, to the window seats you'll think you were in the middle of nowhere. On the flip side, a quick bus ride into the city and you'll be surrounded with basically every shop you need and several bars, clubs and restaurants.
I'm really glad I never went to the open day, because I feel I would have saw all the concrete and thought I'd hate to study there. Now that I'm here I absolutely love it.