It’s a step towards helping protect women since the rise in spiking cases, say organisers
THE first ever girls-only club night in Cardiff is being launched with the aim of providing a safe space for women.
Hosted by MOVE Together at Revolution on Castle Street, the Official Tutti Frutti launch party is on February 1 and will run every Tuesday from then.
It will resemble a traditional student night with cheap drinks and entry at £1 but alongside the main room will be an exclusive girls-only room with club anthems supplied by Bump and Grind resident DJ Reba Kimber.
Cardiff University student Courtney Wilbor, from Cathays Terrace, said: “After the bad press that Revolution received during the height of spiking, it’s good to see they’re doing something now to make girls feel protected.
“I would definitely like to go. It would be nice to go there, feel safer and have a good time with friends.”
But fellow student, Elinor Howell, from May Street said the girls-only room would “kill the vibe of the night”.
“We always go out as a mixed group, so it wouldn’t feel right just leaving the boys at the door,” she added.
Elise Ferdinando, also from May Street said: “I can’t see many of friends wanting to go to a room with just girls, personally I would stay in the mixed room.”
The issue of women’s safety in clubs has attracted a lot of attention over the last six months, leading to an organised boycott of bars and nightclubs in Cardiff on October 29 last year.
Anna McMorrin MP for Cardiff North has said that women in Wales are not safe and more needs to be done to protect them.
Last October, Cardiff University Students’ Union launched a safety campaign.
The measures included distributing over 8,000 drink bottle toppers and 10,000 cup toppers.
By mid-November last year, UK police forces said 274 cases of injection spiking had been reported.
However, on Wednesday a Parliamentary inquiry into spiking heard from Paul Fullwood, director of inspections and enforcement at the Security Industry Authority, which regulates the UK’s private security sector including night clubs. He said the SIA had received “no intelligence of spiking by needle”.
Tutti Frutti will be the first of its kind in Cardiff, but pubs and clubs up and down the country have already joined in on a similar initiative.
In November last year, Temple Bar nightclub in Eastbourne held a month of girls-only nights. Similarly, The Playwright in Nottingham staged weekly girls-only nights in October last year.
