Disaster At Dorma

The first Sports Night of term descended into chaos on Wednesday night with hundreds of students turned away from official venue Dorma. Bouncers declared the newly-opened nightclub full as early as 11pm, dispersing a large queue of disappointed students onto the streets of Clifton Down.

AU Sports Nights usually provide student athletes from every club with a deserved chance to celebrate stories of sporting prowess and find suitably athletic (and intoxicated) partners with whom to engage in a post-evening workout. However the only stories being shared on Wednesday night were ones of frustration.

There are concerns that Dorma is an unsuitable venue for such a popular club night. Dorma’s capacity (approximately 750) is under half that of The Bunker, which previously hosted the night.

The hockey club, one of Bristol’s largest sports clubs, was forced to seek an alternative venue after discovering that Dorma would not be able to cater for their numbers that week.

Meanwhile, students were left waiting in a monstrous queue while places inside were reserved for the football club, yet to arrive.

One member of the queue described it as “a joke”, while another adamantly stated that he would “not be coming back to Sports Night again”.

While the decision of the AU to move the venue may seem misguided, they were left with little choice after The Bunker were offered the financially lucrative Propaganda Wednesdays. Few venues apart from Dorma were willing to pay for the contract for Sports Night which reportedly costs £24,000, the only other viable alternative being the deeply unpopular Syndicate, the infamous “superclub”.

A member of the AU suggested that it was just a case of first night teething problems. The plan had been to stagger the arrival of all the clubs, but this was widely ignored and large numbers descended on the queue from opening time onwards, overwhelming the club’s door strategy. Furthermore, the first Sports Night of the year is always far better attended than subsequent weeks.

It is understood that representatives of the night have since spoken to those who were turned away to ensure that the same does not happen next week, and that all clubs will be given an allotted arrival time. It is also planned that Bijou, a nightclub across the road, may be used as an overflow, though how popular this solution might be is yet to be seen.

Hopefully the club will be able to fix these entry issues by next week, as those who were lucky enough to get in described it as “a sweet night”.

(Ed – When this article was first published on 13/10/2012 the given capacity of Dorma was incorrect. This has since been amended.)