Bristol, as anyone who lives there will tell you, loves Bristol. Aside from possibly Glasgow, I'd struggle to think of a part of the UK that is more self-congratulatory about just how sick it is. Then again, it is pretty sick. It's the city I grew up in, and even though I now live in London, it still possesses a smug hold on me. Whatever happens to me in this world, it's with alarming and inevitable regularity I find myself slumped on a Megabus,sliding off the M32, past Ikea and into the city centre, texting my mum "be with you in 5 mins".
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The obvious point: Bristol has an amazing musical heritage. It's built on soundsystem culture, nurtured trip-hop, fostered dubstep, and in recent years has birthed a wealth of contemporary, and game-changing, house and techno stretching from Julio Bashmore to Livity Sound.Bristol also has a lot of hills which, while making cycling a bit of a pain in the arse, does mean that 90% of the time you can get somewhere with a pretty great view of the city. I wonder whether this is one of the reasons it's so easy to fall in love with the place—a reminder that every wild and weird thing that is constantly going on in every club and corner is part of one wonderful whole.It's tough to single out one club, obviously. Lakota deserves an honourable mention, if for nothing more than its place in Bristol-lore, and up and comers like the Small Horse or the Island definitely deserve your attention for the calibre of their lineups. Likelihood is you'll end up being dragged down Park Street at least once or twice, for a night of expensive Sambuca shots, lads in paint-remover-strong aftershave and girls called Tash who are studying Russian Literature dancing to "In Da Club". Try to keep these trips few and far between—they are more fun that way.All that said, based on scale of ambition, and sheer scale, your best bet has got to be Motion. The venue lives inside an old skate park, tucked away in the murky reaches of Bristol's docks, and is a constant source of massive parties and brilliant lineups. Marble Factory, its sister venue, houses smaller one-offs for the heads, whereas Motion itself plays host to everyone from Ben Klock to Kurupt FM. It's also a weird building, as all clubs should be, full of enough back-corridors and dimly lit corners to get lost in for a whole weekend if you're not careful.
A Club
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A Really Good Pub
A Record Shop
A Gig Venue
A Decent Restaurant For Someone On a Budget
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A Museum You Can Take the Person You Got Off With On the First Night
A Place to Drink Coffee in Between Lectures Because You Will Suddenly Decide That You Drink Coffee Now Even Though You'd Rather Have a Squash
A Truly Local Spot That You'll Feel Really Smug Knowing About
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