Oxford’s longest-running club night will be moving from Atik to Emporium, making way for Park End, Atik’s new Wednesday event.
The move came about due to a new partnership between Encore Events, the company responsible for Fuzzy Ducks, and the company that owns Emporium, The Bridge, and TVC.
According to Encore CEO, Toby Beers-Baker, Atik was no longer a suitable venue for Fuzzy Ducks due to the decrease in the number of students going out on Wednesday nights.
Last week, the initial new name of the ATIK Wednesday night, Shark End, was changed to ‘Park End’. Cherwell understands that this switch came after objections from university sports teams.
Beers-Baker told Cherwell: “Emporium is a much better size for the amount of students that go out on a Wednesday night nowadays, as over the last few years Atik would quite regularly have closed/empty rooms.”
He also said that Encore’s lineup for the week will be “much stronger” now their events are being exclusively hosted at venues owned by the same company.
He added: “Fuzzys will remain Fuzzys, as it has in its long history at Atik, Wahoo, The O2, Bath SU, The Carling Academy, and the Zodiac.
“It’s the only brand in Oxford that has always moved venues successfully, and we’ll be taking the mentality, the crowd, the music, the DJs and THE DUCK [sic] with us to Emporium.
“The layout of Emporium allows us to continue to provide different music on the different floors, and Emporium’s VIP area works perfectly as the new captains VIP.”
An all-night reduction in the price of VKs, to £1.50, is the main difference to expect at Fuzzys in the coming term.
A new club night at Atik, Shark End Wednesdays, will replace Fuzzy Ducks from Wednesday of freshers’ week (3 October). Shark End organisers Freddie Goodall and Sam Zappi promise to “shake up Oxford nightlife” with the new event.
The pair told The Tab: “We want Oxford University students to get more back from their night with better content, more exciting acts and an overall better experience than what they are getting currently.
“Change is good, and there will be a great amount of energy being put into the night.
“We like working closely with the students, with sports clubs, societies and entz reps being integral part of our event planning.”
However, reactions to the new event have been mixed, with one Oxfess suggesting a “first week boycott of ‘Shark End’”. The student added: “Wtf is that name is this a joke… #bringbackfuzzies.”
#Oxfess22431Anyone for a 1st week boycott of 'shark end'?Wtf is that name is this a joke…#bringbackfuzzies
Posted by Oxfess on Monday, September 3, 2018
Another Oxfess called the name “the least funny joke [they’d] heard all year.”
Sophie Kilminster, a regular attendant of Fuzzy Ducks, said the news had “hit [her] hard”.
She told Cherwell: “The news that Fuzzy Ducks, the shining star of my midweeks, has moved to Emporium, the site of the saddest Valentines-evening I have ever had, has hit me hard.
“Emporium is a fundamentally flawed club, the circular stage blocking off the tiny amount of fun that could happen in a club that seems to purposely play songs that have never been popular.
“The replacement of something as wholesome as a Fuzzy Duck with a predator demonstrates how the Oxford club scene is literally being eaten alive by such a terrible change.”
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