The merger of RockEntz and PulseNation events companies into Varsity Events has led to a drop in the variety and diversity of Oxford club nights, students and managers claim.
Organisers of other club nights have complained about the “monopoly” Varsity has on the city.
Jenny Edmunds, a current student who runs the popular club night Eclectric, said, “It’s not very nice having all the money going to the same people at the top.”
OUSU-backed PulseNation was founded by two Oxford University students Dominic Conte and Arthur Worsley at the beginning of 08/09 academic year.
Pulse was formed in response to Balreick Srai’s grip on Oxford entertainment in the form of his events promotion company RockEntz.
Last summer, the two biggest Oxford promotion companies merged together under a trademark of Varsity Events, creating a monopoly which has been both condemned and praised.
Escape nightclub criticised Varsity Events’ effect on the Oxford clubbing scene. “Certainly Pulse and Balreick are the big boys. They have made it hard to break in for other promoters; they do seem to have monopolised the situation. This does lead to more generic nights, I think. More different promoters make it more interesting, catering to different clientele,” said Escape’s spokesperson.
A spokesperson for BabyLove said, “Balreick [the founder of RockEntz] has too much of a monopoly, and I think that it’s unhealthy…I have the view that it’s better to help student promoters.”
“Also, working with different independent promoters means that we have all different kinds of nights, with nights like Eclectric, Pop Tarts’ gay night, and Indie nights with the Narcissists.”
Edmunds, of Eclectric, claimed that the backing from the OUSU made Varsity Events’ domination of the market insurmountable. She said, “The scariest bit is that they have the mailing list from the OUSU, no-one else can compete with that; as soon as new students come they have already got access to them. It would be much better to have lot of individual promoters.”
Varsity Events is described in the Freshers’ Handbook as “the official OUSU-affiliated Entz company”. No other events promotion company can be affiliated with OUSU.
“It’s a really sad scenario that it’s so hard to arrange alternative nights for the amount of cheese,” Edmunds said. She added “lots of people go home to go clubbing, because it’s so much more expensive in Oxford.”
OUSU’s sponsorship of Pulse means that Varsity Events are able to advertise their club nights in emails from Oxford Student Services Limited, OUSU’s commercial subsidiary. This association means that students are aware of Varsity Events’ nights from the start of Fresher’s Week.
But Lewis Iwu, ex-president of OUSU, argued that such a monopoly could be a good thing, and defended OUSU’s decision to sponsor PulseNation.
“I see no problem with the idea of a monopoly on the clubbing scene,” he claimed, “as long as that monopoly isn’t abused, and club prices are still affordable, then I think that can’t be a problem.”
Some believe that the creation of Varsity Events has made a positive difference to the turn-out at clubs. Lava&Ignite manager Ken Getgood admitted, “Having [Varsity Events] working with us makes a huge difference in relation to the amount of students that attend our venue. Admissions wise we are at capacity every Wednesday for our Oxford Uni night – 1200 persons.” He defended the allegation of a lack of choice and variety saying, “I know they use all different types of venues so surely this offers variety to the students?”
The Bridge and Escape also conceded that Varsity Events do boost their student turn out. Escape said they get over 500 people on Fridays, while Bridge claim to reach capacity most Thursdays, both nights being run for Oxford University by Varsity Events.
