​​​​​Hire a Venue

Holding an event in the Student's Union

Who can hire Rubix or The Basement? 

Anyone can hire Rubix or The Basement! Please read the following webpage entirely. To then book a venue, either email the Community Assistant on james.barlow@surrey.ac.uk or the Community Manager at Jade.Johnson@surrey.ac.uk .

There's 2 different types of hire:

Clubs/Societies:

Only a signatory can make the booking, but they must be aware that they are booking on behalf of the whole club or society. 

Independent/external hire:

You can hire The Basement independently. If you hire The Basement as an individual student and not through a club or society you will be personally responsible for the costs and will be asked to pay a deposit- this will be disclosed upon enquiry.

 **Please note that students cannot hire Rubix, only Clubs/Societies/Businesses can.**

Hiring a Venue for a Club Night

The Students’ Union has two venues available for club and society use, Rubix and the Basement. 

Rubix has a capacity of 1550 people.

Basement has a capacity of 250 people.

Out of the two, the Basement is smaller and therefore is more suitable for smaller events, and gives a close, electric, bouncey vibe. We recommend the Basement for most events ran by clubs/societies. 

Profits:

The booker keeps ALL ticket sales - the venue keeps all of the bar sales.  

Tickets can be sold on Tixtu which is free to use and doesn't incur a cost.  So for exmaple if you sell 100 tickets for a Basement night at £5 each, you keep ALL £500.

Costs:

Each venue has a mandatory PPL/PRS cost (Music Licence). We have calcluated these costs based on the overall PPL/PRS bill for the venue and every hirer must pay their contribution. See below:

If you are overdrawn or have no funds in your account, you will be unable to run an event, as it is a high financial risk. You must have the capped amount in your bank account before you book an event (£350 for the Basement and £700 for Rubix).
 

Optional extras

Ticket Collector: £30.00

DJ: £150 - £200 approx.

Dance floor crowd barrier taken down: - £50

For any technical variations please contact Technical Manager, Ian Lipp - i.lipp@surrey.ac.uk  or stage crew ussu.crew@surrey.ac.uk for availability and costs.

Dressing Room: It is free to use the dressing room if you wish, however it must left as it is found. If it is left untidy you will be charged £25 cleaning costs.

In addition, if any equipment or the dressing room is broken through misuse, you may also be charged for repair or replacement of the damaged item (including staff costs).

Using the space for other events or purposes

Hiring a venue for other events which do not not require the bar being open is free, depending on the nature of the event and how many people will be attending and finish times. Events will be considered on a case to case basis, but security and/or a Duty Manager may be required, which will incur cost.

You can also use any of the spaces for rehearsals, meetings etc.  

Contact James Barlow (james.barlow@surrey.ac.uk) or Jade Johnson (jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk) to book a venue. 

Venue Information

Capacity: Rubix = 1550 Basement= 250

Normal opening hours:

Monday-Thursday = 10pm to 2am.

Friday-Sunday = 11pm to 3am

We encourage traditional ‘disco’ events to be between these times.  If you want the event to start earlier or finish later please enquire in the Venue Office. There will be an increased cost. We cannot open later than 2am on a week night.

Tickets

Please contact the Community Assistant on james.barlow@surrey.ac.uk to have an event uploaded to Tixtu. Tixtu is free to use and doesn't take any of your ticket sales, unlike some ticket sellers. If you are a club/society, you must use Tixtu if you are selling tickets for a club night.

They will need the following information to upload an event to Tixtu:

What clubs/societies are running the event, and what is the profit split? (e.g 60% American Football, 40% Archery):

Title of the event:

When the event is:

Where the event is:

Start time of the event:

End time of the event:

Catchphrase for the event (e.g "Get fit for a good cause!"):

Long description of the event:

Image for the event (dimensions 667 pixels x 1000 pixels, landscape, .jpg file):

How many of each type of ticket (Student, non-student, advance, super advance):

Price for each type of ticket (Student, non-student, advance, super advance):

When do you want tickets to go on sale?:

When do you want tickets to go off sale?:

If there is any problems, James Barlow will contact you.

Promotion

It is extremely important that you take into consideration how you are going to advertise and market your event. No matter how organised you are and how wonderful your event is, it will be a flop if you don’t advertise it well enough. This can be done very easily:

• Posters – design/print a poster, stick lots around campus. 

• Stag Media  – Email adverts and event listings to ussu.thestag@surrey.ac.uk  & manager@stagradio.co.uk 
  

• Rubix Plasma screens – Email jpeg image of these dimensions: Fullscreen - 856 x 480 pixels, Side Bars - 216 x 480 pixels to z.zarantonello@surrey.ac.uk
  

• Events Planner – Email event info to jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk 

• Facebook
  

• Instagram
  

Technical Information

You will be provided with basic disco equipment which includes lights and sound. If you have any specific technical requirements e.g. if you are having a band or a vocalist and need extra equipment or a sound engineer these will incur extra costs. For all technical questions please contact Ian Lipp i.lipp@surrey.ac.uk.

Cancellation

If you cancel your event with less than 1 working days notice you are liable to pay the full bar deposit. If you cancel with less than 5 working days you are liable to pay £50. If you cancel before 5 working days there will be no charge.

Other Points to Consider

Reasons for holding your event

E.g. to raise money for your society, celebrate a party, raise money for a charity or for another reason.

Who your event is for

E.g. members of your society, a particular department or school, the public

The Type of entertainment you are going to put on

E.g. a band, dancers, DJ, food. If you are interested in booking an external / celebrity band or DJ this can be sourced through the Entertainments Manager. If you make any agreements yourself the contract must be signed by the Entertainments Manager and invoices must come through the Students Union.

The type of music you are going to play

E.g. who is the DJ going to be? Do you want the union to provide a DJ? What sort of music will your guests like to list to, cheese, hip hop, indie, dance, rock, mainstream etc

Other ways you could raise money

E.g. a raffle, competition, cake sale etc

What the room looks like

E.g. Decorations, drapes, candles, balloons, streamers etc

Frequently Asked Questions

1) Who can hire Rubix or the Basement? 

Any society or club. Only a signatory can make the booking, but they must be aware that they are booking it on behalf of the whole club or society. You can only hire the Living Room independently. If you hire the Living Room as individual student and not through a club or society you will be personally responsible for the costs and will be asked to pay a deposit. You cannot hire Rubix as an individual for personal gain.

2) We would like to put a band in the Basement, is this possible?

Unfortunately the Basement is not suitable for hosting a live band.

3) Can we let members of the public (non-students) in?

Yes, normal door policy of a government ID is required. Only 100 non-students maximum are allowed in.

4) Do we have to clean the venues when we finish?

Although you don’t have to do any cleaning, if you put up any decorations, balloons, banners, etc, then you will be expected to remove them at the end of the night, additionally if you were to help the staff working then that would greatly assist them. The dressing room must be left how it was found.

5) We would like to hire a chocolate fountain/casino/karaoke, etc

We can source all these for you and provide prices, just email jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk.

6) Can we sell food in the Basement?

It is possible that Young’s Kitchen can be open to sell food inside the Basement during your event. If you want to use an outside catering company we must see licensed food hygiene certificates before the night.

7) Can we have drinks promotions? 

It is possible to organise drinks deals through us. Please contact j.lackovic@surrey.ac.uk but remember this will impact on how easily you reach the bar tariff.

8) We wish to do the event on behalf of a charity?

It is possible to give money to charity; however this must be directed through the RAG (Raising and Giving) accounts. Contact ussu.finance@surrey.ac.uk if you have any questions.

9) Can we give away alcohol as prizes? 

You can give away alcohol as a prize, but if the alcohol is to be consumed during the event, we will charge you corkage. Please remember that we encourage responsible drinking at all times.

10) What if you don’t want to do a club night with a bar?

It is possible to use the venue for none club nights e.g. fashion shows, games nights, dance shows etc. We would usually require these events to finish around 11pm and if there is no bar open tariffs will not apply. However sometimes there may be an additional cost for security / duty manager if they are deemed necessary.

11) Are there any tables and chairs in Rubix? 

There are around 200 chairs in our furniture store which can be used free of charge. However you must get them out and put them away yourselves. The only tables we have available are small silver circular tables which are permanently fixed around the building and cannot be moved.

Alternative venues and rooms 

If you decide that Rubix/Living Room are not suitable for your event, there are some alternatives available. Wates House/ Hillside are not part of the Students’ Union but can be hired. 

It is possible to book one of the central teaching rooms through the online booking system. You need to head to the Committee Resources section of the link and complete the Room Booking form. It normally takes two working days for you to receive a confirmation and you need to give at least one week’s notice to book one of these rooms. It is not possible to take food and drink into these rooms so if you were planning on having an event with food then you would need to book somewhere else, or request one of the foyer areas (Management School Foyer, Lecture Theatre Concourse etc). Please note that only signatories can book rooms. 

If you need furniture placed or moved as part of your request (i.e. removing raked seating where possible in AP) then please let the Activity Assistants know as they will need to contact Estates and Facilities. There may be a charge to do this. If you request any Audio-Visual equipment not fitted as standard to a room then you will need to contact Audio Visual Services (AVS) once you have the room confirmed to arrange this.

For additional information please contact Jade Johnson - jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk or james.barlow@surrey.ac.uk .

Information for Individuals, Clubs, Societies & Amenities

This page is designed to act as an outline of the costs and basic requirements that need to be fulfilled to allow members of the Students’ Union to hire out Rubix and the Basement and to successfully run an event.