Assembly allegedly stopped serving water on night of Coventry student’s death

Assembly allegedly stopped serving water after 2:30am on the night a Coventry student died of suspected MDMA overdose.

According to multiple students who attended the event on Friday night, bottled water cost £5, and ran out at approximately 2:30am, hours before the event ended.

Assembly had provided a jug and cups, however they were regularly unattended and filled infrequently, forcing club-goers to fill leftover cups from the toilets.

“They weren’t serving water certainly for the latter half of the night”, one student told The Warwick Tab. “Some of the people around me tried getting water and couldn’t.”

Club goers who have spoken to The Warwick Tab reported the following:

• Bottled water at the venue ran out at approximately 2:30am

• Bar staff were allegedly told off for handing out free bottles of water

• Free tap water was only available from jugs at the bar which were not regularly attended

The Warwick Tab has reached out to Assembly multiple times regarding the availability of water, but have yet to receive a response.

The venue stopped serving bottles of water at 2:30am

Multiple sources at the event confirmed 500ml bottles of water could be bought for £5, however, bottles ran out at least one hour before the event ended. 

Several attendees claiming bottled water at the venue ran out sent their accounts to Instagram page, Pill Report.

“I asked for three bottles of water and bar staff said ‘we have none’ and just gave me one plastic cup,” one club-goer said.

“I asked for bottles for my two friends and they didn’t give me any,” claimed another. “They only gave me one small plastic cup.”

A student told The Warwick Tab bottles had run out at 2:30am, while another claimed the bar closed at approximately 3:30am, even though the set finished at 4am.

Bar staff were allegedly told off for handing out free water

Another student who saw staff handing out free water claimed he also saw them being told off for doing so.

“One of my friends saw a barman get abused and sent to the back when he decided to give out free water to people who really needed it,” he told The Warwick Tab.

A former member of Assembly’s bar staff told The Warwick Tab staff were not allowed to hand out free water during drum n bass nights, “despite the fact they provided it during other event nights such as Bongo’s Bingo.”

“At some events they would have a massive five-litre bottle of water on the side with cups next to it,” a former Assembly bar staff member told The Warwick Tab. “That was the policy with Bongo’s Bingo.

“Then with other events, ones which were more like club nights, we were told to charge for individual bottles of water.”

The only way to get free water at the venue was from jugs left by the bar

Free jugs of tap water were provided at the venue, but were not filled regularly, according to people at the event. 

“At the bar all they had was this jug and cups at the side for anyone to just take to hydrate themselves,” another student told The Warwick Tab. 

“However obviously there are a lot of risks with that because it was quite unattended and the only other alternative was a 500ml bottle of water for £5 which is extortionate.”

Another student said: “When you asked for the jugs to be filled all the bar staff just said they were waiting for someone to do it.”

The Warwick Tab has been told club-goers picked leftover plastic cups off the floor and filled them up from the toilets.

One attendee told Pill Report: “They had a big jug at the end of the bar and they were told to send everyone there, but it was empty and no one was refilling it pretty much the whole night. We had to take empty cups off the bar and go to the toilet taps to fill them up.”

“It wasn’t getting filled up enough for the number of people there,” another club-goer said.

In an Instagram post, a spokesperson for Assembly said: “We are extremely saddened by the tragic incident which occurred last night and extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends at this very sad time.

“We take the well-being of our customers extremely seriously, we continue to work closely with Warwickshire Police and reiterate our zero-tolerance policy on drugs in our venue.”

Assembly have been approached for further comment.