Crisis apologises for serial-killer themed Halloween club night after backlash

Crisis has faced backlash from students after announcing a serial-killer themed Halloween club night event. 

The club night theme has now been changed and the event will now just be a general Halloween theme, Crisis has said.

The event announcement, which was posted to Crisis’ Instagram, included images of prolific serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, and was a competition in which if you tagged your friends you could win tickets.

Following this, Nottingham students labelled the theme as insensitive, branding it “tone-deaf”.

via: @WeAreCrisis on Instagram

One comment on Crisis’ Instagram read: “I think this is a bit tone-deaf if I’m honest”, with another replying: “I swear they’re all rapists too”.

One former University of Nottingham student, who graduated this year, told the Tab Notts: “I feel completely ashamed that the club thousands of students would attend every week had chosen such a tone-deaf theme for its Halloween event.”

The initial Instagram post was deleted on Friday night, 16 hours after it was originally posted. On Sunday evening, Crisis posted an apology to its Instagram page where it said the theme had now been dropped.

In this apology, the event organisers said they “realise that this was an upsetting and triggering concept” and have confirmed “the event will proceed, but it is now simply a general Halloween theme”.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by CRISIS (@wearecrisis)

A spokesperson for Crisis told The Tab Notts: “On Friday evening we released our Halloween event with a Serial Killers theme. After consideration, we realise this was an upsetting and triggering concept. We would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone we have offended or caused distress to.

“In response to your feedback we changed the theme in less than 16 hrs of its release. The event will proceed, but it is now simply a general Halloween theme. We would like to add that neither Rock City nor our partners at the Students’ Union was involved in the theme decision process.

“Regarding an open letter that has been shared, we will be contacting this individual separately to offer our apologies directly. This has been a regretful incident and we will consult with our audience more carefully in future with our theme choices.”

Featured images before edits via Unsplash and @wearecrisis on Instagram.

Related articles recommended by this author:

• 11 ways you can be more sustainable as a Notts student without breaking the bank