As a venue for major cultural events, Grandes Locos has become the heart of Lyon’s arts scene. Located in the La Mulatière Technicentre—a former SNCF heavy maintenance complex with a key role in the city’s rail history—it’s now being rehabilitated by SNCF Immobilier in partnership with the Metropolitan Council of Lyon.

The centre takes its name from Grand Lyon (French for “Greater Lyon”) and the locomotives that were once built and maintained here. In 2024 alone, Grandes Locos will host the Nuits Sonores music festival, the Lyon Biennale contemporary art and dance events, and the city’s Street Food Festival.

This iconic 20-ha complex is part of the city’s rich industrial history, and the only site of its kind in Greater Lyon. La Mulatière was built along France’s very first railway, linking Lyon and Saint-Etienne, and over time it specialized—first in maintaining locomotives and then in repairing electric train engines. But by 2020, the buildings were no longer suitable for today’s industrial operations, and maintenance activities were moved to a new Technicentre in nearby Vénissieux.

Through 2027, La Mulatière will host more and more major cultural events, as works on existing buildings and grounds are completed.

In addition to the programme of events organized with the community, the Lyon Metropolitan Council and players in local culture, the Technicentre will also be home to a recycling centre specifically for the arts.

SNCF Immobilier has offered other vacant spaces in the Technicentre complex to tenants with plans to benefit the arts, the planet and the local community. These include:

• projects linked to craft industries and the circular economy
• a theatre company and costume shop
• emergency housing for refugee families
• a non-profit that delivers food to people in need
• a third place dedicated to sustainable food and indoor urban agriculture

SNCF Group is the second-largest property owner in France, and some of our land and buildings are no longer used in rail operations. Transitional urban development brings new life to these idle properties, transforming them into community life spaces while they await permanent development.