Cabaret Aléatoire

Marseille's main home for electronic music sits inside La Friche la Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory that employed nearly 1,000 people until it shut in 1990 and is now a sprawling arts centre. Music enthusiasts created the Cabaret in 2002. It has held the French SMAC label since 2014, the state's badge for contemporary music venues, and says it is the only one in France devoted to electronic cultures. In 2012 it got a new CODA Audio system and reworked acoustics. Listings give the capacity as anywhere between 300 and 1,100 depending on how the room is set up, and Songkick has it at 1,100. It reports about 70 dates and 70,000 visitors a season. The programme takes in techno and house, with hip-hop, soul and funk around them, and its own festival spin-offs include Utopia at La Friche in September. A typical club night runs from 23:30 to 05:30. In a city with a strong outdoor summer, this is where the winter work gets done.