After hearing rumours that Saturday nights at Lava & Ignite (ex-Park End) were the biggest and best that Oxford has to offer, I felt it was nothing less than my social obligation to pay the club a visit and put these rumours to the test.

I have fond - but invariably vague - memories of Park End from my student days. My friends and I would drink Snakebite until our skin turned purple and then spend hours on the downstairs dance floor hassling the DJ until he played the Baywatch theme tune for the third time that night.

Shameful, I know. But good fun nonetheless, and I was really hoping that the club hadn't lost its sense of humour in the transformation from Park End to the new Lava & Ignite.

The first thing I saw on Saturday night as I walked up the stairs was a man dressed as Marilyn Monroe; in fact a good proportion of clubbers were in fancy dress. There were firefighters, fairies and Flintstones around one corner; pink-ladies, policemen and even the Pope around the next.

I felt left out; if I had known that Lava & Ignite practically encourage this sort of behaviour I would have worn my kilt, there are simply not enough excuses to wear one these days.

Once paid and de-cloaked, newcomers to the club are faced with a decision similar to one that Alice might have faced in Wonderland; do you walk through the door marked with a red sign into Lava, or do you ascend the stairs marked with the purple sign to find yourself in Ignite?

I was inexplicably drawn to the purple sign, as a moth to a lit candle, and walking up the stairs I cringed inwardly at the thought that I was almost certainly the only person to ever have likened this decision to a Lewis Caroll adventure.

The bar at the top of the stairs was filled with energetic revellers drinking multi-coloured alcopops, and the adjoining R&B room remained untouched since the days of Park End, with a crowd bumping and grinding away to upbeat dancehall anthems. The biggest change to the club is the main room upstairs. Where there used to be a giant hole in the floor where you could view the downstairs dance floor, there is now a sparkling new dance floor and DJ booth.

The flavour here is commercial house and electro; the highlight of which was an unexpected house version of one of my personal retro favourites Tiny Dancer by Elton John. My lasting impression of this room was of very good-looking people having an awesome time, most likely fuelled by more than a few shots of Sambuca.

Downstairs in Lava brought a smile to my face; they were playing indie and cheese on a Saturday night in Oxford. Any club that has the audacity to do this gets the thumbs up from me. It's a risky move but Lava & Ignite get away with it; they know they give the people of Oxford a good time.

Next Saturday, I suggest you get your mates together and dress up as the entire cast from Star wars. Get yourself down to Lava & Ignite and party until the early hours, I guarantee you a brilliant night.