The Ins and Outs of Controlling Orientation

Firstly, we would like to apologise to M. Brockie and everyone else who did not get into some of the Orientation events. The simple fact is that with the Beatles night, Top Scientists, Coup d'Etat and Pop Mechanix, attendance was well up on what we expected (about 1,000 - 1,300 each night), we did advise people to turn up early to major events and as much as possible told people buying the Card that obviously they would only get into events while there was still space available. In addition the doors to every "sold out" event were re-opened later in the evening when enough people had left. Unfortunately, fire regulations limit numbers in both the Union Hall and the Cafe to about 700 - 800. We were not particularly keen on going over this for several reasons: no-one is happy to be held responsible for overcrowding if a fire does break out; we knew the police were watching Orientation, probably looking for an excuse to jump in and close us down (plain-clothed and uniformed police were spotted at several events and steps were taken to have them removed); we also knew the fire brigade were keeping an eye on us. The situation was made a lot worse after the Beatles night when some clown punched in a fire alarm. The fire brigade, although used to this sort of behaviour from students, was not at all amused, particularly when it could not get the engines close enough to the building due to congestion in the car park.