Students at Bondi nightclub hit by crowding problems

A popular inner-city Dublin nightclub has started to undertake necessary changes after numerous complaints of chaos in both its queues and inside.

Bondi nightclub on Lower Ormond Quay has recently seen a surge in popularity that has led to patrons, many of whom are DCU students, experiencing what even management describe as “overcrowding”.

DCU actuary student, Erin Gilheaney, went to Bondi on Monday February 9 and had a particularly unpleasant experience while trying to enter the club. “There were only two bouncers outside and roughly 200 of us in the queue. People were pushing from the back which made the queue spread,” she said.

“We were pushed against the railings and at one point I was at a 45 degree angle with the ground. I stuck my leg through the railings so as not to fall over but I ended up with really bad bruises.”

She added that she wouldn’t go back again and put the situation down to “really bad organisation”.

Another DCU student, who wishes to remain anonymous, was there the previous Monday night and had a similar experience to Gilheaney. He said: “Everyone was pushing and it was really rowdy. I’ve never been in a more dangerous queue.”

However he eventually made it inside. Here he witnessed further problems with overcrowding. “There were far too many people let in. Once you got on the dance floor you could hardly move let alone get off it again.”

He also spoke of people pouring drinks off the balcony and throwing glasses down on people. “There were too many people and there just wasn’t enough of a security presence.”

It’s now been four months since Bondi opened in the premises that was previously known as Zanzibar. It has quickly become a popular fixture on the Dublin club scene but it appears that the management were initially unprepared for the increase in turnout.

When asked about the complaints voiced by patrons, managing director Maurice Doolan admitted that they had been taken by surprise. “The club got so popular so quick that we weren’t expecting the big numbers we were getting… It happened two Mondays in a row where we actually lost control,” he said.

However he feels that they are now very much in control of the situation. “We’ve got in a new security firm that deals specifically with crowd control. We now have 18 doormen, five on the door outside and the rest inside.”

When asked about overcrowding inside and the problems with the balcony he said: “Overcrowding on the dance floor is due to the club being very narrow. There’s a bottleneck at the toilets but we’re working on it.

“Keeping the flow is a problem but we’re getting there. There’s a new cloakroom going in this week and we’re also creating a new exit. We have also installed three security guys in high vis[ability] t-shirts on the balcony who are keeping an eye on people.”

Doolan put the previous weeks’ trouble down as “a learning curve” and urged people to get in contact with him if they have any further problems.