YUSU Drops Gallery From New Timetable

Staple student club Gallery has been scrapped from official YUSU student nights following publication of the new club timetable on the YUSU website.

The new calendar sees a complete rewrite of the old clubbing week, with previously unsupported clubs Fibbers and Vodka Revolution being added to the mix in place of venues previously attended by students.

In a blog post published this evening, Democracy and Services Officer Dan Walker commented that “[The new events represent] a relatively significant change to the club timetable, and it’s something which has been under review since before my time in office.

“The official clubs represent what should be the best quality and value for money in York. The line-up intends to provide a range of venues and music which York has, in the past, lacked.”

The new nights see a shakeup of the old timetable. In particular, Monday, traditionally a quiet night for York students, has laid claim to a new event held at music venue Fibbers. In the past, Fibbers has been more famous for running a Friday night Cheesy Pop event to rival neighbour The Duchess’ indie night, as well as regularly hosting music acts as famous as Franz Ferdinand.

Vodka Revolution will claim Sunday nights in a departure from unofficial “Sunday Night Gallery”, a locals night often attended by students in the past. This follows Vodka Revolution’s expansion into next-door venue Orgasmic which it bought at the end of last term.

“Truesday”, the once official YUSU night has been scrapped once more in place of Club Salvation, which took over Tuesday night clubbing in the Summer Term last year. Following a fire in the smoking terrace of the club earlier in the summer holidays, the club will be partially refurbished ready for the new academic year.

Once completed, the refurbished Tru will be renamed Tokyo and take the lead on Thursday nights, killing off the once-popular Thursday Night Gallery.

A third year Economics student said of the changes: “This sounds like a fantastic new timetable for students! I’m particularly excited about Fibbers, with a new sound system and increased capacity, it sounds like a great event!”

Nonetheless, popularity of unofficial events has been demonstrated in the past by students’ attendance of both Sunday Night Gallery nights and the annual Viking Raid’s unofficial rival, Carnage.

Speaking exclusively to Vision, Walker promised increased quality and competitiveness between clubs, saying that they will now “have the ability to remain far more competitive and reactive to the needs of the student body.” He also emphasised increasing student choice on nights out, by offering a wider range of events on a weekly basis.

Describing reasons for dropping Gallery from the club ‘timetable’, Walker explained that “Gallery, due to it’s owning company’s apparent financial status, will be unable to remain competitive next to the new clubs. We went for quality and potential.”

The removal of Luminar clubs from YUSU-endorsed club nights also leaves the future of the Gold Card – providing free access to the holder and a plus one to the club, and distributed by YUSU to select members of the union – in question, though Walker says the future of them is “under discussion.”

Walker also said that Wednesday nights have been left free so that the unofficial York Sport club night at Ziggy’s could continue.

These changes, though instigated by his predecessors, reflect Walker’s desire to increase student satisfaction with union-run events, including a redesigned Freshers’ Ball and manifesto promises to increase Central Hall’s usage as a music and comedy venue. Nevertheless, the university is still without its own dedicated club venue, as is the case in many other institutions.

It remains to be seen how college Freshers’ Weeks will react to the news, but it is understood that all clubs will feature on Freshers Week timetables that are to be announced in the coming weeks.