Meet ‘The Groov Collective’: The Sussex rugby boys organising charity club nights

Meet The Groov Collective, an events company organised by five Sussex students, all of whom swap their rugby boots for their disco shoes to host charity club nights in Brighton.

The Groov Collective's first event was held in aid of Sussex Rugby RFU Injured Players Foundation. The boys' enthusiasm for donating to this charity lead to a beautiful revamp of Wednesday nights, offering Sussex students an alternative to their usual Wednesday night shenanigans. With this, The Groov Collective was born, followed by the event 'Volks on a Wednesday'. Clubbers attending were told to expect music ranging from groovy disco tunes to hip hop bangers.

Speaking to Rory, a Sussex Second year Zoology student responsible for the visuals and designs of the company, it was made clear just how successful the boys were with their first event.

"Our first Volks takeover was such a huge success, especially considering it was mainly promoted from word of mouth"

"I don't think even Volks really took it seriously to start with because they didn't realise how huge it would actually end up being. We went almost three hundred people over capacity and the club even ended up running out of VK's on the night".

Speaking about how the event was originally run in aid of Sussex rugby RFU Injured Players Foundation, the enthusiasm for donating the proceeds to these nights was hugely apparent. "Each of our events so far have been in support of a charity close to our hearts in some way and we will continue to donate to charities in our future events" says Rory.

"We managed to raise over two thousand pounds for the RFU Injured Players Foundation and mental health charity Mind from our last three events, so we're extremely proud of the money our events have enabled us to donate to these amazing charities".

The Groov Collective work closely with Sussex students and have frequently collaborated with Sussex student DJ's. This allowed them to promote their first gig among Sussex students. Sussex's photography society also got involved, photographing the last event they ran.

When asked about the future of The Groov, Rory explained that big things are coming. "We plan to have many more 'Volks on a Wednesday' takeover's, because they've been hugely successful each time. They raise loads of money for charity which makes all the hard work we put into the nights so worthwhile", he says.

"We'd love to work closer with the Sussex SU in the future to try and plan some more events on campus, especially now that we've said goodbye to East Slope bar", Rory explains.

"It would be great to give Sussex artists and DJ's the chance to showcase their music, possibly by hosting Open Mic nights. Everyone loves nights out where people know each other, that's the beauty of putting on a night where almost everyone who attends is a student at Sussex".

You can catch the boys getting down and groovy at their Patterns event: Strictly Bangers on November 30th. And don't fret, Volks on a Wednesday will be returning very soon. So dust of your disco shoes, and as the boys say, "bring your pals along and get in the Groov."