"This is a festival that's a part of Lyon, there's a connection with the audience and the artists," Pierre Zeimet, one of Nuits Sonores's curators proudly told me. Over the past two decades, the event has become an important asset in Lyon's event calendar. To be a flaneur around the city during the festival's seven days means encountering electronic music fans from as far as Switzerland or beach towns in the South of France. Kitted out in their best summer outfits (which sometimes just meant shirtless guys), the Nuits Sonores audience was far from upholding fashion statements with French flavor. Marvine and Melissa, a couple who have gone to the past four editions, said they loved the easy-goingness: "This year's edition may be smaller, but we're enjoying it as we always did."

A 10-minute tram ride connected sunset parties at HEAT, a renovated former factory with an open air yard-turned-dancefloor, to nighttime performances at the hangar-esque Usines Fagor-Brandt and their industrial charm. With everything in such close proximity, artists were easy to spot wandering around Lyon's main spots like the esplanade by the junction of the Saône and Rhone rivers or the Croix Rousse neighborhood's bouchons—a type of restaurant typical in Lyon. On Thursday, for instance, Sebastien Tellier sat a few tables away from me at breakfast.

The bearded synth magician and 2008 Eurovision contestant was far from being the festival's sole French act. This year, the lineup featured over 50 artists and DJs, half of whom are based in Lyon or elsewhere in France. From travel restrictions to budget cuts, the pandemic pushed Nuits Sonores organizers to think local. Bernadette and Pedro Bertho, for instance, who teach DJ classes at local club Sucre, delivered an upbeat b2b on night three. "We've succeeded in crossing Lyon's local scene and France's national scene and bringing international artists as well," says Pinsard. "This is something we want to keep doing for the next editions. Even though a regular festival can take place, we will keep supporting the local scene."

To enter, ticket-holders had to show up with proof of vaccination or a negative test, and venue capacity was limited to fewer than half. But this new reality for festivals, at least for the years to come, didn't seem to put a damper on things. Attendees sipped glasses of pastis with water, a common, cheap drink in the South of France, while waiting in line for their Covid tests to be checked. The mostly techno-oriented lineup fostered an unstoppable rave energy that held up throughout the week. Masks were hardly seen on the dance floor since they were recommended but not required, and partygoers kept cool by fanning themselves with paper vaccination cards.

Here are five regional acts we loved at Nuits Sonores 2021.

Gin Tonic Orchestra

Truth be told, the Gin Tonic Orchestra's 7 members outnumbered the audience when they first set foot on the main stage Monday afternoon. Led by keyboardist Victor Dijoud aka Kaffé Creme and drummer Leo Puccio, the Saint Etienne-based outfit displayed an inventive blend of cutting-edge fusion jazz, electrifying funk music and early '90s post-rock. With the performance, they earned new fans and the right to sit at the table of big bands—from the Ezra Collective to BadBadNotGood—pushing jazz into the dance club. Horns and flutes showed off high-scoring melody-making while long (themes) set the pace on stage, all held up by the interlocking duo of Puccio on drums and Leo Aun on bass.

Flore and WSK

An important name in French bass music, producer Flore brought a live modular synth performance accompanied by live visuals from WSK. The result was a gritty, harsh experience soundtracked by raw, deconstructed techno textures and belly-punch frequencies. It's not by chance that her label, Poolar, links up with the likes of Hyperdub and fits into the left field bass scene. Behind the decks, she brought to mind a fired-up Kode9. Flore wandered around odd tempos and meandered away from the conventional four-on-the-floor in her drum loops and synth attacks. It was both a contemplative and danceable exhibit that would've fit better in a smaller room lined with blasting bass-boosted speakers—a setup that is not yet ideal in the ongoing pandemic.

O.B.F Sound System

When a member of High Tone, the Lyon-based group that's been a staple of the French sound system scene since the '90s, tested positive for Covid-19, O.B.F Sound System lived up to the last-minute call. Hailing from the surrounding areas of Geneva, Switzerland, the trio delivered a full-bodied dub performance at the Usines de Fagor-Brandt 360-degree-stage. MCs Belén Natalí and Sr Wilson managed to bring the audience together while DJ Rico spun Jamaican riddim classics or deconstructed some of their own productions—like "Sixteen Tons of Pressure." One of the few downtempo acts lined up to the festival, O.B.F Sound System's straightforward dub was a welcome break from the fast-paced sets I'd seen over the festival's first two days.

Zone W/O People
(Oklou x Krampf live AV project)

For this show, singer and producer Oklou and producer Krampf switched things up by making a game out of a soundtrack. Originally a commission for Red Bull Music Academy 2018, the project filled the Nuits Sonores 360-degrees stage with digital-made ambient soundscapes. Comfy at her seat, Oklou navigated through the virtual 3D world, making music as she went. The duo's eerie compositions were synced to each step, route or jump taken by her character on screen. These gestures triggered her blend of PC music-reminiscent hyperpop and breezy R&B while she sang into cheap headphones that muffled her voice. Though some seemed to not entirely grasp the idea behind the performance, it stood out as one of a kind amidst a lineup full of DJs, and Oklou fans cheered and sighed in reaction to her evolution in the game.

Lisa b2b Christian Coiffure

Day three headliners and powerhouse performers Ascendant Vierge set the bar incredibly high. The stomping fusion of Paul Seul's overloaded gabber and Mathilde Fernandez's ornamental lyrical singing had the audience in a frenzy and the dancefloor slick with sweat. It was a hard act to follow, but two upcoming contenders in the French electronic music landscape managed to pull it off. Lisa, a DJ and Tsunami 津波 label-head, and Christian Coiffure, a resident at Lyon online radio station LYL. With a deep coherence throughout their set, the two fused hard techno anthems, dark high-energy tracks and even underground breakbeat gems, proving themselves to be young and refreshing club music DJs rather than impromptu b2b lineup filler.

Gin Tonic Orchestra

Flore and WSK

O.B.F Sound System

Zone W/O People (Oklou x Krampf live AV project)

Lisa b2b Christian Coiffure

Zone W/O People
(Oklou x Krampf live AV project)