EXCLUSIVE: Company behind CRISIS to run 7 Legged Bar Crawl after being dropped by the SU

Carpe Noctum will continue to run the event for charity


After the disappointing news broke yesterday that the Students’ Union have decided to drop Karnival’s 96 year-old 7 Legged Bar Crawl, the company behind CRISIS, Carpe Noctum, have come to the event’s rescue by announcing they will continue to run the bar crawl for charity.

Andrew Smith, the managing director of Carpe Noctum, said in a statement exclusive to The Tab that the event will continue to run as normal, just without affiliation to the Students’ Union and also with a student committee behind it; meaning the event will still take place in mid-October, will still end at Rock City or Ocean (pending negotiations with Andy Hoe), and will, most importantly, still be entirely for charity.

The man to the rescue

In the statement, Smith stresses that he sympathises with the SU’s decision to drop the event and believes the Union are correct to distance themselves from potentially risky endeavours. His full statement is as follows below:

“I am delighted to announce our intention to continue 7 Legged as a charitable event on Monday 16th October, following pretty much the current format, only run by Carpe Noctum (the team behind CRISIS) and a new student organising committee.

“We currently see no reason why the event and the good work it does cannot continue without Union involvement. I was disappointed to learn that the 7 Legged event wouldn’t be continuing.”

“Having worked with the Union for at least 10 years, I could completely understand why they may not want to be involved themselves anymore. The Union is, after all, a political organisation and they are making a political decision. Situations like the roller coaster incident (even if accidental) or the Freshers Week necrophilia song scandal, put the University and Union under increasing pressure to distance themselves from these type of events. Smart phones and social media have meant that reputations are much harder to maintain and high capacity, alcohol-fuelled events carry with them these types of reputation risks.

The SU have taken the event out of the hands of Karni

“If you think this is ‘political correctness gone mad’ I would respond by saying that the value of your degree extends well beyond the amount you pay now. Your degree value is only maintained if the institution you obtained it from is credible in 20 years time. I would also add that the Union hasn’t banned such an event; they’ve just said, ‘this one isn’t for us, we’ll create something else.’

“The 7 Legged situation isn’t at all dissimilar to Cock-Soc 5 years ago when we took over the running of the ball following the Cocktail Society’s disaffiliation from the Union. At the time, the major concern was around binge drinking culture. The ball itself had dwindled in attendance to around 300 people on a single day. With a little bit of love and affection we surpassed even our own expectations, managing to build it to attract over 2,000 people over 3 days, all whilst lowering the price and increasing the value.

“As a Nottingham University graduate myself, I attended 7 Legged during my uni years and thought it was the best night out I’d been to. Like many of you, we thought it would be a real shame to let it die, so why not continue it in the same vain?

The fancy dress will continue

“To that end, we are delighted to announce we intend on running 7 Legged 2017 in October of this year; and to continue both the student involvement by having a student organising committee; and more importantly, maintain the charitable link with profits going to charity either via Karnival, or directly to a cause(s) you get to vote on.

“Rock City as an end venue has been confirmed for Monday 16th October. I am yet to speak to Andy Hoe at Ocean but given his outspoken opinion on the matter on Facebook, I’m sure he wouldn’t object to us continuing the charitable event with his help.

“Overall, I think this could be win-win for everyone involved. First and foremost the charity funding is maintained, the event itself is kept so everyone has a great time, and the Union no longer have a potential reputation-risk volcano on their lap, liable to go off at any moment.”