Your guide to Southampton nightlife

Being completely honest, clubbing is probably going to feature in a great deal of your lives as freshers.

Luckily for you, Southampton has a pretty impressive nightlife scene, with a whole array of different nights for all sorts of different tastes. Obviously then, it would be rude of us not to break these nights down for you, so here is our fool proof guide to Southampton’s lovely (and not so lovely) nightlife, laid out for you in chronological order that is probably more organised than my life.

MONDAY

Monday is obviously going to start with the biggest cult nightclub (and night) in Southampton. Berlin has Berghain, Ibiza has Space, London has Fabric, and Southampton has, uhhh, Jesters. If you take away the iconic music, swanky venues and the finesse the previous three clubs have to offer, and replace it with ridiculously cheap alcohol, some infamous antics and pure, unadulterated cheese, you may have some semblance of what Jesters has to offer.

Do not take our word for it though, like true love or scoring with a goalkeeper on FIFA, Jesters is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. Oh and also, it’s an overused, shit cliché, but don’t wear nice shoes.

TUESDAY

Tuesday will not only introduce you to the cheapest vodka in Southampton, but also two of the nicest owners. Sobar Tuesdays, run by Becky and Paris, is almost as messy as Jesters perhaps with slightly better music.

It’s a very sociable night, with Sobar’s massive outdoors area being the place most people reside all night, and should definitely be tried at least once. I’d advise two pints of water and two aspirin before bed, as well as a Lucozade in the morning though. Got to keep those electrolyte levels high.

WEDNESDAY

The night where people pretend to be a bit more classy and sample the rather more conventional nightclubbing Southampton has to offer. Drinks are relatively cheap, and it is a popular student night.

The music is pretty much anything from afro-beats to Aerosmith, so something for everyone I suppose. There’s the famous cheese room to, for those of you who prefer a trip back to the halcyon days where Atomic Kitten were a prominent force in the musical world.

THURSDAY

Parfait. That’s French for perfect, an apt way to describe this night of brilliance. The Chocolate Factory is the name of the night, and it’s pretty brilliant if I’m being honest. There’s nothing particularly special about it, it just seems to do the trick week in week out.

Offering very little more than any of the other nights do, it has a certain magic to it, a certain charm, mainly for the fact it manages to make something of arguably the most pointless and mundane day of the week. If semi skimmed milk were a day, it would be a Thursday – Parfait bravely stands up to this.

FRIDAY

Is the biggest student night in Southampton, at Switch. The club only opened last year, and through a combination of its Saturday night electronic specials, it’s massive, massive festival Soundclash (which is back this September), and it’s sell out student night Juiced, Switch is now probably the biggest nightclub in Southampton, and deservedly so, with its massive capacity, impressive sound system, incredible lights show and sound owners.

If this doesn’t become a regular night for 95% of readers I’ll be very surprised. Worth noting too that Switch have some huge names heading through their doors this semester, so worth checking that out too.

SATURDAY

Locals night, which means the price goes up. Just about everywhere is open, but special mentions have to go to Junk, who are one time winners of the Best Small Club in the UK award.

On a Saturday you’ll be able to catch some of the hottest names in Underground dance music, and if that’s your thing, it’s a club with a cracking atmosphere that delivers some amazing parties. It’s also blessed with a great sound system, and a very intimate dancefloor, and a definite contender for my favourite club.

SUNDAY

Seriously? You need to start taking more care of your body. If God was supposed to have rested on the 7^th day then who do you think you are? Why are you even reading this bit?

You should have seen Saturday and said “Oh great, that’s all 6 days people normally go out covered, now I’m going to move on to another article, or get on with whatever I was doing.” Your insatiable appetite for partying needs to calm down.

Have we missed your favourite place? Let us know in the comments below!