‘Stampedes’ and ‘crushing’ reported at the SU’s first YOLO event of the year

It was the first YOLO back after Christmas

4 years ago

News

Students attending the first YOLO event of the year at Cardiff Students’ Union claim they were “trampled” in the queue.

Having previously been shut since Boxing Day 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions, Cardiff Uni’s SU opened up its doors for its weekly student night.

While the night was meant to start at 9pm, students were queuing in advance to make it in for the opening.

One student told The Cardiff Tab that the crowds were jostling and pushing, resulting in other students becoming “crushed” and “unable to get up” from the floor.

Another student said that nobody was able to get anywhere and people were screaming: “We were in the stampede of people. It was so dangerous.”

SU nights have been known for being crowded on regular nights

A student worrying for her safety said they had queued for almost three hours: “We were all dying to use the bathroom during that time and we’re refused multiple times even though the queue was not moving at all.”

“One of my friends was in tears as she was about to wet herself and they told her no, so she had to leave the queue an hour and a half into waiting to pee outside and go home. She woke up with an extremely bad UTI and was left walking home late at night by herself.

“When we got into the holding room we were packed like sardines. I’m only 5”4 and was surrounded by big lads getting pushed and struggling to breathe. To top it all of the security spoke to everyone there like absolute rubbish, screaming in all of our faces and laughing at how packed up we all were. Safe to say we won’t be attending again.”

Arguably, the only way to find your mates is from the balcony

A spokesperson from the SU said: “The first YOLO of 2022 and post the easing of Covid restrictions gained huge popularity from the student community, with the club reaching capacity before 9pm and queues in place for the remainder of the evening. We’re delighted so many students are wanting to attend the events on offer, we are working to ensure as many can participate in them as possible.

“Once the venue reaches capacity, further entry is only possible when others leave, the capacity limits are strictly adhered to in line with our safety regulations. We want to thank the majority of students who waited patiently and respected the queuing system, our security team quickly responded at times when queues were at peak levels.

“The Students’ Union invests heavily in safety measures to ensure the safe running of operations, this includes employing a significant number of security contractors far greater than required by licensing regulations. The health and safety of attendees is our number one priority, we require all attendees to play their part by behaving respectfully both in the queues and inside the venues.

“Our venues team will continue to monitor and review our queuing system, further improvements will be made before the upcoming event. We appreciate that the capacity limitations causes frustration when some are unable to gain entry. There are over 30,000 students at Cardiff and the Students’ Union club capacity is 2,500. Build a bigger club you say? We are exploring opportunities to regularly increase our capacity across the building to be able to allow more students to experience our increasingly popular events.”