Here’s what Cardiff University students had to say about the ever-growing YOLO queues

There’s nothing Cardiff University students love more than YOLO, but one thing that has become clear since Freshers’ Week this year, the queue is a mood killer and it’s getting out of hand.

Recently, YOLO reached mass capacity by 8:15pm with crowds of people arriving and queuing outside of the Students’ Union. As a result of this, YOLO-goers have started arriving outside the Students’ Union as early as 7pm to join the queue, despite the club not opening officially until 9pm.

Not only is this a huge disruption to societies’ socials with many having to start much earlier than usual but also people are also having to walk in the road to get into the queue. Whilst security over the past few weeks has started putting up barricades to avoid students walking into the road, every Wednesday without fail, Park Place turns into chaos.

Y Plas has uploaded stories onto its Instagram and Facebook every week to communicate with students about the queue size and when the event has reached mass capacity. But so far, this initiative doesn’t seem to be working.

So what is the solution? Many students have suggested that YOLO becomes a “full building take-over” every week. Saying that the Great Hall and silent disco would mean increasing capacity even more.

A poll by The Cardiff Tab on Instagram found that 84 per cent of students agreed that YOLO should be a full building take-over.

One student replied to the story saying: “Definitely, it would increase capacity, surely increase profit for the SU and reduce crowding,” with another adding: “At least for the first few weeks it should”.

A third student then added: “100 per cent – bring back silent disco in YOLO too!”

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Every week on TikTok, we are seeing more and more videos of the YOLO queues, which are going viral around the UK. One of these videos posted by @ella_lucia has nearly 350,000 views with previous students saying: “Things have changed so much since I was there. We didn’t used to even go out until after 10pm”.

@ella_lucia live laugh yolo xox #cardiffuni #cathays #yolo #cardiffsu #cardiffuniversity ♬ liquorice – sexxspears

Another former student commented on the post: “Used to go there 2001-2004 and thankfully it was never like this. 80p a pint on a Monday and didn’t used to go until 10.30pm”.

Even Cardiff Students’ Union president Madison Hutchinson has taken to the social media site to try and settle the weekly Wednesday rush.

Madison uploaded a video captioned: “Public service announcement from SU Pres,” telling people to stop showing up at YOLO at 7pm and instead aim to go for 11pm for a shorter queue.

However, for those freshers who may not know, you’d have to pay if you enter after 10pm.

@madisonhutchinson3

Public service annoucement from SU Pres 🫡🫡 #cardiffuni #cathays #cardiff @CardiffStudents @Y Plas Nightclub

♬ Succession Main Theme – L’Orchestra Nazionale di Mendoni

In a statement to The Cardiff Tab, a Cardiff Students’ Union spokesperson said: “YOLO is one of the most popular and well-attended SU nightclub events in the UK, with an average of 4,250 students attending each week. We are incredibly proud to provide such a vibrant and well-loved night for Cardiff students.

“The popularity of YOLO means there are inevitably challenges in allowing everyone to gain entry, and safety remains our absolute priority. To ensure we manage the high demand safely, we sometimes open the venue earlier if we believe it is in the best interest of those waiting.

“We see that popularity is always higher between Freshers’ Week and Halloween, this eases after reading week, with the last two weeks without a persistent queue. We have also significantly improved the queue process, investing in more barriers and security to support safe queuing.

They added that whilst the SU occasionally runs full-building takeovers to increase capacity, ” these events are operationally challenging and require significant parts of the building to be closed off for safety and logistical reasons. This means they cannot be held every week without impacting other services and facilities”.

“The next full building event “SNOLO” will be taking place on Wednesday 11th December.

The spokesperson continued by saying they appreciate all the feedback they receive from students, including suggestions for more full-building takeovers, but note that the SU’s focus continues to be “balancing the student experience with ensuring the safety of everyone who attends”.

They did note, however, that the SU team will continue to review how they can “improve the experience at YOLO” whilst keeping safety at the forefront of their operation.