Three owners and directors of establishments agreed to take the pulse of Lyon’s nightlife and reveal the behind-the-scenes of a world full of varied hazards.
First, to outline the features of this post-covid night ecosystem, we must establish its new, even unprecedented, characteristics: a world “more random, less foresighted”according to Benjamin Lavorel, owner of several establishments including Azar (Lyon 2nd) and Mamy ROSE (Lyon 6th), which would make the management of events more difficult.
As for Ayers Rock (Lyon 1er) and its director Romain Cartier, the consumption method of the younger clientele is changing: “Typical night establishments fill up much later, and young people’s outings are concentrated at the end of the week.”
Iouri Kotov, owner of the bar Les Poupées (Lyon 1er, formerly Les Poupées Russes), deplores the problem of insecurity in the city, which makes the management of bars and nightclubs more complex.
However, the opinion of the three managers is unanimous: “After Covid, the numbers have never been so good”, confides Yuri Kotov. While Benjamin Lavorel adds: “There was a big wave during the four months post-covid (September 2021, editor’s note) and after that, it calmed down a little.” Romain Cartier relies on official figures: “We started to feel a backlash at the end of 2022. The year 2023 was a little duller, with a drop in sector activity of 20%.”
“A new way of consuming”
The desire for post-Covid freedom of 18-25 year olds has passed, and the pressure has subsided. To explain this, various factors come into play: “Insecurity, purchasing power”according to the boss of the Dolls, but also “traffic more complicated, with the main roads closed to go outside the center of Lyon”according to that of Azar and, above all, “a new way of consuming”.
Romain Cartier (Ayers Rock) explains that “the new generation reserves more for the weekend and when they go out, they consume less: they enjoy the atmosphere more than the consumption of alcohol.” Iouri Kotov analysis: “Young people consume much less alcohol, and above all they consume it more intelligently. Before, we observed excessive consumption to get drunk. Today, they have a more relaxed evening rhythm, they start with aperitifs, and then they move on to strong alcohol later.”
But how can we adapt to a clientele looking for new experiences? “There is a lot of competition and compared to the end of Covid when young people went out and the evenings filled up alone, today we have to find themes, entertainment, evenings for customers, invest constantly”explains the owner of Azar before adding: “It requires a little more time, creativity, novelty.”
On the Ayers Rock side, the management strategy has borne fruit: “We felt the effects of the change in customer behavior, but we questioned ourselves and modified certain aspects: we placed emphasis on communication, digital, events to relaunch the activity. We are quite satisfied with the results.”
“People want magic”
According to Yuri Kotov, this change in consumption is directly linked to social networks, responsible for a new state of mind towards bars and nightclubs: ”Today, people see each other much less than we saw each other back then, because they have the impression of being around each other through messages. This social connection has been cut by social networks, and we have the impression of always being surrounded. Generations change, we just have to adapt.”
Sensing a generational clash with his clientele, the latter delegated management of the bar in the evening to his team, whereas he previously supervised the operation of the bar every night: “As someone from the 90/91 generation, we didn’t have all the apps to meet people. We went to clubs or bars to socialize, chatting. Today, we have much less of this reflex to go out to meet new people, young people keep to themselves and discussion is then more difficult”.
A generation, according to the manager of Poupées, which is more into appearance and wants to control its image via the networks: “A lot of people come, just take a photo of the bar and leave without even consuming. People want magic, they want Disney: trash works a lot less than before.”
For his part, Benjamin Lavorel deplores growing competition, offset by more regular renewal: “There are a lot of establishments that have flourished, on the outskirts or not, and the supply is much greater than before Covid with a demand that has fallen a little, we have to get over it. The problem in Lyon is that as soon as you find a theme that works well, people copy it. It’s non-stop work, with concepts that must be constantly renewed.” Yuri Kotov adds: “Today, you can go out in all the districts of Lyon, even in Confluence and the 7th. Before it was more restricted on the 1st, 2nd and 6th. The clientele was concentrated in the city center. From now on, we have to share the pieces of the pie, that’s normal.”
The Lyon nightlife scene is therefore not dead, it is only a mirror of the change in mindset of a generation focused more on quality, rather than quantity.
