Nightlife in Lausanne

14 clubs, live music venues and late-night spots in Lausanne.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

Do
Arsenic
Specializing in more offbeat acts the Arsenic books a full schedule of avant-garde theatre, jazz and pop music, and installation/performance art throughout the fall, winter and spring.
Drink
Bleu Lézard
The Bleu Lézard is a popular student hangout with a restaurant-café-bar upstairs and a dance floor in the basement. There's usually live music on Wednesdays and DJs on the weekends. Perfect place for a late Sunday brunch.
Fr. 4 for a beer
Drink
D!
Dance club with international DJ appearances, occasionally concerts. Doesn't get started until after midnight. Check local listings for details.
Drink
La Ruche Club
The Hive
A very popular place to dance on minimal music, there's sometimes psychedelic trance. A strange place, attended by a lot of very weird kinds of insects. "On s'retrouve à la ruche!" they say. Upstairs is the associated Café Hydromel (hydromel is a kind of mead).
Drink
Le Bourg
A great place to see up-and-coming jazz and performance oriented acts from all over the continent. The place is a real theater with a tiny bar in front, and the booking is simply amazing for a room which can hold maybe 30 people tops, with acts ranging from French accordion jazz or gypsy jazz to Coco-Rosie-like "new folk" to famed Chicago and NYC DJs. You would not be alone in asking how they can pull that off.
Wed 18:00-01:00, Thu 18:00-03:00, Fri Sat 18:00-04:00Fr. 4
Eat
Le Club
Upscale Italian cuisine in a large trendy all-glass restaurant. Try the truffle ravioli. In the summer the terrace, insulated from motor traffic, is a big draw for singles of all persuasions. Free Wi-Fi.
Expect to pay around Fr. 50 per person for dinner.
Do
Le Romandie
Rock club and live music. See their web site for the program.
Drink
Le Romandie - Rock club Lôzane
As a members-run cooperative the Romandie can offer just about the cheapest drinks imaginable in Switzerland, but the main point is the bands. The calendar leans pretty heavily toward hard rock and heavy metal they also book folk or other acts on a weekly basis as well as hosting friendly, late-night parties with DJs. Another draw is the room itself: the club stretches between 2 arches of the bridge of Place de l'Europe.
Drink
MAD
One of the largest Swiss dance club with international DJ appearances. Thursday RnB & student nights, Friday trance & techno, Saturday house clubbing, Sunday TRIXX & Jungle gay nights. Difficult to enter after midnight. Check local listings for details.
Do
Métropole
A major concert hall for western Switzerland, the Métropole books dance, world music, pop, jazz, etc. If you are passing through town at the right time you might catch anything from the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra to the Cure here.
Mon 09:00-19:00, Tue-Fri 08:30-19:00, Sat 08:00-18:00
Do Not mapped
Explore The Old Town
From the railway station you can take the convenient metro up to either Flon, Riponne or Bessières (close to the cathedral). Alternatively, if you don't mind climbing, the car-free section of old town really starts right across from the train station, with a steep walk up the hill. Shops keep strict hours: M-F 10:00-19:00, and Sa 10:00-18:00. On Wednesdays and Saturdays year-round almost all of the huge car-free area becomes a vast farmers market. Thanks to the hills making it hard to pave over, Lausanne's old town is larger than most found in Swiss cities, with the notable exception of Zurich. You can spend days wandering the old cobbled streets and still not know all of its nooks and crannies. After the shops close there are dozens of quaint, cozy, hip, or just warm restaurants, cafés and nightclubs, especially considering that at Place Central the old town joins with the Flon nightclub/gallery district. Wander as long as you like, there's no charge of course.
Drink
Amnesia Club
Av. Jaques-Dalcroze 9
Do
Les Docks
Live music and bar.
Drink
Taco's Bar
Pool and live music, of reasonably large size.

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Lausanne (CC BY-SA 4.0).