• In Lyon, the industrial wasteland of the Fagor Brandt factories has hosted many large-scale cultural events since 2017: the Nuits Sonores festival, the dance and contemporary art biennials, the Lyon Street Food festival.

  • The metropolis of Lyon, chaired by Bruno Bernard, decided to close the premises in November 2023 to probably build, instead, a technical room for the tram.

  • A blow for the cultural institutions of the city of Lyon, which for the moment find themselves without a new place of reception.

Trendy temple of the Nuits Sonores festival since 2017, gigantic workshop for the preparation of the dance biennial, essential exhibition space for the contemporary art biennial, the former Fagor Brandt factories in Lyon are going to close.

Again.

The end is recorded for the month of November 2023. The rumor has been running for a month.

The news has been official since Monday evening.

The future vocation of this former industrial wasteland has not yet been defined.

The Lyon metropolis, owner of the premises, is working on a “long-term occupation project” which could be a technical room for a tram.

What solution envisioned?

It remains to be seen how the news will be received in the cultural and event community. Several voices had already been raised against the rumor, starting with Nathalie Perrin-Gilbert, deputy in charge of culture at the town hall of Lyon. Contacted at the end of September by

Le Petit Bulletin

, the elected representative was surprised at the lack of consultation. "I was neither warned nor associated with this decision," she lamented. 

"Temporary use of the site may be carried out until November 2023 to allow all the planned events to take place", nevertheless assures the metropolis of Lyon chaired by Bruno Bernard.

What then of the current actors who used to invest in disused workshops?

"I do not know if they are aware of the issues", worried at the end of September, in the columns of the

Petit Bulletin

, Isabelle Bertolotti, director of the Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Is the metropolis ready to take the risk of seeing four major cultural institutions emigrate from Lyon, due to a lack of available reception facilities?

“We are working in partnership with cultural players to find a new venue for the 2024 editions,” she promises.

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