Ziggy's

Ziggy's always seems a bit dirty, sweaty, and grungy. I have had brilliant nights there, providing I arrive drunk and continue to drink throughout the night. I think if I was there sober I would probably have the worst night ever. It's one of these places that's so bad it's good. Cheap drinks are a bonus too (and help you forget how awful the club is.)

Ziggy's is an experience.
Saying it is an enjoyable venue is a mistatement, Ziggy's is to nightclubs what the Carry On films are to the romance genre. Grimey, dingy, lewd and uncultured. However, like the Carry On films, it can be experienced in a manner perhaps equivalent to enjoyment.

The upstairs is a lapdance area, though i have not been there during the lapdance nights, but from the garish, awfully designed website (http://www.heavensaboveziggys.co.uk/) i gather it is a run-of-the-mill seedy affair, veiling it's unclassiness with a coat of gold paint.
The larger dancefloor is in the basement, accessed through a tiny tiny stairwell (which can accomodate the width of one person, despite about twenty people trying to go both ways at once).

The rumours that later on in the night the walls sweat aren't exactly true. It is in fact the condensation of the bodily fluids of the hundred odd people partying.
The rumours that it isn't hard to leave with one (or two) sexual partners of either gender are in fact completely true. Expect lots of kissing and heavy petting all around. There is a distinct lack of fire exits in the basement, which, combined with the large crowd, is disconcerting.

However, if you are sober enough to be disconcerted, you don't belong in Ziggy's. It is definitely not the place to be sober in. Or any of the lesser stages of intoxication. Upon first entering I had not had much to drink and so the shock of people casually urinating in the sinks in the toilets (I believe there are supposed to be male and female toilets, but this is disregarded in practice) was quite an experience.

Later, once i had drank enough to not take notice of such events, the nightclub didn't seem that bad. If you ignore that vague smell of vomit and avoid the smaller room's corners where couples appear to be consummating their attraction, it can be quite "fun", for want of a better word.

The atmosphere is certainly that of energy and lust fueled party, and if you are determined to enjoy the night, and adopt that atmosphere, Ziggy's can be a decent night out.

The beauty is, really, that in order to enjoy it you must consume vast amounts of alcohol, and as such your memories of the dank, cavernous deathtrap will be jarred and faded by the morning.

And, as my cab driver commented in the taxi home, at the end of the day, it's who you're with that makes the night out, the venue is just a room.
With Ziggy's it just so happens that the room is small, cramped, and you leave covered in someone else's sweat.

Ziggys has a bit of a reputation in the area of being the worst of the three main clubs in York (the Gallery, Toffs(now called Tru i think) and Ziggys). When you enter it doesn’t really help itself it is very dingy although it has helped with the smoking ban as you can breathe in there now.
If your doining the 'Micklegate Run’ and can’t be bothered with walking down to the Gallery then I guess Ziggys would be fine, certainly it attracts a younger crowd than Toff’s so if your after a messy night out then Ziggys is waiting for you.

I’ve only experienced Ziggy’s on student nights, but what an experience it is. Jam-packed, sweaty and fueled by cheap-as-chips alcohol, Ziggy’s is not a place to enter in sobriety or leave with dignity.

It can, if you are in the mind-frame, be a fantastically fun night out, but I must stress that this doesn’t have an awful lot to do with venue itself, but how determined you are to enjoy your night.