Oxford is scheduled to join a number of universities across the UK in staging a protest against spiking. Students will be boycotting nightclubs throughout Oxford on Wednesday the 27th. One of Oxford’s most prominent nightclubs, ATIK, announced yesterday that they have made the decision to close in solidarity with the protest.
When approached for comment last week, ATIK nightclub had originally decided to go ahead with their planned event on the night of the boycott. However, they have recently released a statement confirming their new stance.
ATIK has released a statement on instagram saying “after much consideration and after listening to both our staff and our guests, we can confirm we’ve taken the decision to close our student night, Park End, on Wednesday 27th October in solidarity with the nightlife boycott.” ATIK was scheduled to put on a Park End night with Oxford Events featuring reggae-pop artist, Iyaz.
The statement continues, “our commitment to guest safety remains our number one priority and we will continue to improve the measures we have in place with improvements to our training programmes, communication of our We Care programme and anti-spiking devices being made available. We will continue with our 100% search policy, our security wearing body cams and our specialist welfare team including an onsite medic and first raiders managing our medical room.”
“We would like to show our support to our student partners this Wednesday in raising the awareness of safety in the night time economy. Let’s work together to stamp this out.”
Women*’s Campaign and It Happens Here told Cherwell: “We see ATIK’s recent announcement that it will be closing on Wednesday night in solidarity with the ‘Big Night In’ boycott as a step in the right direction. However, we would like to state that based on testimonies circulating online and being provided to student representatives, there is still a lot more they can do to make students feel safe on nights out.”
The Oxford Student Union will be hosting an anti-spiking demonstration at 10pm on the 27th outside the Clarendon Building on Broad Street.
Image Credit: Hendo Wang via unsplash.com
