03.11.2021

Official Statement

In regards to last week's event as reported, Fuse would like to take the time to go more in-depth about its plans to make the club a safer space for its visitors.

First of all, we want to give our sincere apologies to our visitors who did not receive the help from our staff that they deserved and should always get. We believe your story and promise to take the necessary steps and to learn from this situation. It is unacceptable that some staff members did not respond properly to an unsafe situation.

As a result of last weekend’s testimony, we have stopped with immediate effect to work together with the concerned persons who were involved in this case.

Fuse is dedicated to investing time and resources into improving the safety at the club with immediate effect and is taking both short and long-term actions to reach this goal. In the past few days, we have reached out to several organizations such as VAD (Vereniging voor Alcohol en Drugsproblematiek) and Safe ‘n Sound. We were in contact for several weeks already with the Berlin Club Commission and ForTheMusic to help us improve our safety procedures, to give extra training to our management team as well as the staff including night managers, security teams, bartenders, runners, toilet responsible and any nightlife professional involved in the club.

Next to that, Safe ‘n Sound is helping us setting-up an Awareness Team inside the venue. The Awareness Team employees will be the first persons of contact for anyone who feels unsafe or has witnessed any form of non-consent situation, sexualized violence, or any form of discrimination. The Awareness Team will also be able to use a new set-up safe space where visitors can rest and recover when needed.

We were already in the process of implementing new safety procedures present at Fuse. Since the re-opening of the club, the new team that started to work took its first steps in developing an Awareness Team as well as a Hospitality Team. Several team members were following Free Sexism Night courses on how to improve the safety procedures inside the club. The Hospitality Team member will be a trained volunteer sharing the same interests, lifestyle, and experiences as many of the other revelers. They inform partygoers about the Awareness Team and other important information for a safe night out and figure as a contact person for whoever needs one. They do this neutrally and objectively, without judging.

A dedicated email address where people can testify (letusknow@fuse.be) was set up and announced several weeks ago in order to make sure that visitors’ stories can get heard and so that we can remove the blind spots in our way of working.

The club is determined to take concrete steps towards improving the safety inside its premises as drug abuse and the normalization of violence is a social phenomenon that also affects the whole nightlife sector in Brussels and Belgium. In that aim, we will reach out to the Brussels Night Federation in order to open a dialogue between the nightlife professionals to share experiences and best practices around those topics.

Summary of the actions taken by Fuse:

  • Implementation of an Awareness Team together with Safe ‘n Sound. The Awareness Team is the first contact person in any case of wrong behavior or danger. (No security involved until this contact person calls security).

  • Training of the staff and the security team together with VAD concerning various topics such as drug (ab)use, harassment, and other harm reduction measures.

  • Analyze and strengthen current safety procedures together with ForTheMusic and VAD.

  • Installment of a safe zone inside the club where visitors can cool down and/or explain their problems.

  • Integration of a Hospitality Team member at the entrance who’ll have the mission to explain, advise and inform partygoers about the Awareness Team and other important information for a safe night out.



END OF STATEMENT