Go out in Lyon

It is well known that French cities have the gift of granting themselves the title of "capital of something", whatever it may be. Well, if Lyon is known to have been the capital of French gastronomy for decades, if not centuries, in the 90s it could also have been described as the capital of repression in terms of electronic music. Fortunately, Lyon has since embraced the rave and underground culture to become the city with one of the most attractive nightlife in France. Most of the parties happen during the weekends, from Friday to Sunday. If you come to Lyon, you'll see that people usually start going out for a beer around 6pm, after work. Once here, the best way to do what the locals do, is to go out for a drink between 6 and 7 pm, have dinner around 8 pm and then start the "before" (the pre-party) around 9 or 10 pm, either in an apartment or in a bar, and then around 1 am go to the club. The closing time of most clubs is 6 am. It's becoming easier and more common to find also day time events: open-air, festivals... Especially in summer, which is very mild in Lyon. During the week, it is common for people to get together to share a few drinks after work during the many afterworks; these are organized or improvised in the city and sometimes they can lead to endless dinners in the capital, as said, of French gastronomy. Even though people now love going out in Lyon, which often implies drinking alcohol, you’ll have to know that there are some important rules to know and respect. First of them, you can’t buy alcohol in grocery stores after 10 pm. We also advise you not to get too drunk in public areas if you don’t want to spend your night at the police station. As we mentioned before, clubs close at 6 am and that's where it should end. If you still feel that you need to party more, it won’t be hard for you to find groups of friends who’ll offer you to join them for an afterparty in their flat.

In Lyon, everyone’s musical taste will be pleased thanks to the huge variety of clubs and parties. You’ll find a programming going from commercial/hip hop to the industrial and underground techno parties. In the last 10 years, thanks to the festival Nuits-Sonores, the underground has attracted more and more young people with a predominance of house, deep house, disco and selectors these last 5 years and techno, industrial and micro these last 10 years. Some people even invented the nickname Lyon Techno City, that became popular to describe the nightlife here in the early 2010’s. The 3 areas where you’ll find most of the clubs and bars in Lyon are Confluence -with Le Sucre and Azar Club-, the center of the city (La Presqu’Ile) -with L’Ambassade, Le Groom or Le Terminal-, and both Saône and Rhône river barges -with Le Sonic, The Boat or La Marquise. Though it's the third biggest city in France, Lyon is a place where it's easy to walk from one place to another. That’s the reason why it’s frequent to see people spending one night in more than one club.

Going out in Lyon is more affordable than in other big cities like Paris. As we said before, it’s unlikely that you’ll need a cab or a Uber to go somewhere as it’s easy to walk, use a bicycle or a scooter. The average price of a ticket to a club will be maximum 15€, depending on the kind of club you go to. To enter the club to a better price, you can look for early birds if they do online presales (which is really common). Concerning alcohol, the average price of a long drink is 10€, while beer usually costs around 6 or 7€ and a shot, 5€. If you choose to extend your pre-party, a drink in a bar should cost around 8€ and a beer around 5 or 6€. If you prefer to stay and warm-up at home, the 75cl bottle of alcohol in a supermarket will rarely exceed 25€. If you like to smoke, you have to know that the French government is setting the price higher and higher and a pack of 20 cigarettes now cost between 8 and 9€.

When you’ll come to Lyon, you won’t have to get particularly well dressed if you go out to electronic music clubs. During the summer, even shorts are accepted, as well as sneakers during the whole year. If you’d like to go to a more fashionable club like La Maison, L’Ambassade or Azar, we’d recommend that you put on a shirt and a pair of nice shoes if you’re a boy, and a nice dress and heels if you’re a girl. In general, the rules are the same as everywhere, underground = no dress code, hype and selected = chic clothes.