Nightclub apologises after the earth moved

Tuesday 14 February 2017

You might think that hitting the right moves was all part of a night out - but now a Jersey nightclub has apologised after cutting off the music, following safety concerns caused by too many people jumping on the dance floor at the same time.

Rojo Nightclub was criticised by Drum and Bass DJ and producer, Macky Gee, who spoke out after his sell-out set on Saturday night was cut off multiple times as staff were worried about the floor moving.

I'm coming back to Jersey for the same promoter and for you lot. but I'm never playing at ROJOS CLUB ever again..

— Macky Gee (@MackyGee) February 12, 2017

Macky Gee travelled to the Island for the event and said: "I was gutted when the electricity was cut off 4 times and I didn't have a clue what was going on, I wanted the people who support me and paid money to see me to enjoy themselves as much as possible and I feel this had been affected massively”

 “I can say that the people in Jersey were absolutely amazing and stayed right until the end so I want to thank them for that too! The main thing is that they are all safe and I'll be able to see them again soon as I am coming back this year!!"

Bring in the workers because @MackyGee nearly took us through the floor

— Sol Hannaford (@solhannaford55) February 12, 2017

The event was not completely shut down, and Rojo's management later said that the music was shut off three, rather than four times - they released a statement on Facebook saying: “We've never had to cut the music before but when you think people's lives maybe at risk you don't have a choice.”

 “We've never had near on 300 people jump up and down at the same time whilst all crammed onto the dance floor and the floor's movement was a cause for concern. Sometimes you have to take hugely unpopular decisions for everyone's safety.”

J-P Anquetil, Restaurant Manager at Rojo, said that this was a problem specific to the event on Saturday night. “We weren’t sure if it was the right kind of event for Rojo.”

He said he made the decision to cut the music off at points throughout the night and tell the crowd of nearly 300 people, that they needed to calm down. Mr Anquetil said he was confident that this incident was a one-off as they have never had a problem with the dance floor before and they put it down to the style of the event.

Hooked, an event planning company, had organised the event at Rojo’s. They expressed their disappointment about the event disruption via Facebook.

“Contrary to a couple of comments we have received, the event was not over-sold, the number of tickets sold were well within the capacity of the venue.”

“As per Rojo’s posts we were unable to let more people in as they felt the movement on the floor was a huge concern and had to make an unpopular decision to turn the music off for everyone’s safety. All people who attended could clearly see masses of space at the back of the club and that the crowding wasn't the issue it was everyone jumping up at the same time that caused the concern.”

Hooked promised that ticket holders that were not able to gain entry to the event on Saturday would receive a 50% discount to their next event. 

Here's Rojo's full statement about the incident on Saturday: