‘Diversion’ a case study: Where The Crowd Is The Headliner

editorial
Written By Nina Katashvili

How Lyon’s anti-headliner party returns with fairness, anonymity, and a €10 ticket.

by Simon Blondeau-Fouilland.

Hi readers of UNMIXED Magazine, I’m Simon Blondeau-Fouilland and I started my path in the electronic music scene back in 2011, first as an amateur journalist during the blog era, while also beginning to DJ. Soon after, I started organizing events and in 2014 created Happiness Therapy, initially as a promoter and later as a label in 2018. With nearly 15 years of perspective on the scene, I’ve witnessed how tempting it has been for many to adapt to the industrialization and globalization of electronic music purely for profit. But that’s not the path I have wanted to choose. Instead, I’ve launched different initiatives aside from my label to preserve what we cherish: I created Hello Sunshine Agency with my friend and colleague Lucas Moulas in 2022 to help artists navigate this wild landscape, and launched the party-concept Diversion in 2020, just before Covid.

Why Diversion? It all started with an observation. Having begun DJing and organizing parties in Lyon out of pure passion in 2014, I watched the scene evolve. By 2019, it was clear that what I loved — what I cherished — was fading. Electronic music had become an economy: a machine that grinds down diversity, sidelines emerging artists, concentrates opportunities in the hands of a few big names, and drives ticket prices ever higher.
So, in 2020, I created Diversion: an event where, for one night, music once again became the central focus, and the dancefloor reclaimed its power. An event where the DJ’s anonymity was the very essence of the experience, breaking away from industry codes. After three hours of playing behind an opaque veil, the reveal of the artists (Lakuti and Tama Sumo) became a singular closing moment. Sadly, Covid cut this momentum short, and the club that had trusted me shut down.
Five years later, I’m still here, still facing the same reality — and now I’m announcing the return of Diversion on October 4th. Once again with an unannounced DJ, performers, and a strictly limited capacity of 200 people. A party truly for everyone, with tickets priced at €5 and €10. No name, no face, just music and celebration. For this new edition, happening at La Commune in Lyon, we’ve imagined a central booth at the heart of the space with an exclusive scenography, for an unforgettable all-night-long.

The Budget: We chose to allocate a similar budget to both the DJ and the performers: €450 each. The DJ (traveling from ****, still under wraps) will play an all-night-long set, while the local crew of performers will receive the same. On top of this, we covered €350 in agency, travel, and hotel costs to bring the DJ to Lyon.

For the rest of the team:

€300 for our lighting technician (under the French intermittence regime),

€250 for our graphic designer,

€200 for scenography materials.

This brings the total budget to €2,000.

As this is a co-production, the venue takes the bar while we keep the door. In return, they cover security, part of the backline, and a production manager.

‘Diversion’ as a case study; budget allocation.

Given the commitment of everyone involved, each person agreed to lower their fee to make the project possible. While the split feels fair, we know compensation can and should improve. And even if these fees may look comparable to — or higher than — industry averages, that doesn’t make them normal or acceptable. Since we cannot exceed this budget, we also take on tasks ourselves: bringing our own DJ gear, handling photography, and putting in personal effort to offer a real alternative to the current system.

The Logic: This approach is linked to our launch phase: ticket prices are extremely low (€5–10) compared to the experience we’re offering. This was both a matter of accessibility and a way to incentivize people to try something different. Going forward, we aim to stabilize around €10 tickets — keeping it affordable while raising fees for our collaborators and involving even more people from the art space.

If you run the numbers, even selling out all 200 tickets only generates €1,750, meaning we’d actually lose money. Thankfully, La Commune is providing us with a support budget, which will allow us to make some profit hopefully, that we plan to reinvest directly into the next edition, with the goal of being fully autonomous in the future.

I feel deep gratitude toward La Commune’s team for their trust. We’ve already built a strong history together, notably with the Lyon edition of La Mona, an event rooted in house music and dance classes.

No Promo Budget

If you’re wondering why there’s no promotional budget, the answer is simple: we don’t have one. We firmly believe we can’t feed the machine we’re fighting, nor rely on coverage that only comes through paid visibility. Instead, we prepared a press kit and reached out to a few media to see if they’d cover our concept. So far, we’ve received four confirmed features and are actively working on content with them. We don’t blame media who rely on paid coverage, but we do think the balance between editorial independence and paid content should be rethought.

3 Main Takeaways

If readers (and party goers) walk away with three ideas, I’d want them to be these:

  1. We can rethink the way we party - fun doesn’t have to depend on a headliner. The crowd itself can be the party, creating a unique collective energy.

  2. It’s abnormal that only a few benefit from this industry: DJs, managers, promoters, club owners, while so many other contributors (technicians, performers, designers) are left undervalued.

  3. The system as it stands drives exclusion: skyrocketing prices enrich a handful while pushing many people out of access to these cultural spaces.

Interview with Simon

In one line: what problem in club culture is Diversion solving?

Diversion is tackling the problem of personality-driven club culture by shifting focus from the headliner’s name to the shared emotional experience.

Why anonymity: what did it change in crowd behavior and booking power?
Removing the DJ’s identity shifts focus entirely to the music and the collective experience. People dance more freely, without preconceived notions or hype influencing their engagement. It fosters curiosity and attentiveness rather than following a personality or brand.
Anonymity levels the playing field. Without promoting a headliner, the event doesn’t rely on a single “name” to sell tickets, giving more weight to the overall concept, performers, and production quality. Since the artist is not announced, their fee can no longer be calculated based on notoriety — we, as organizers, become the guarantors of quality. This also allows emerging or lesser-known artists to perform without pressure or expectation.

Marketing and promotion are more difficult, since you can’t rely on a recognized name to fill the room. You need to reinvent the approach and build trust from scratch.

Some attendees may hesitate to come without a familiar artist attached.

Media coverage can be harder to secure, as press often focuses on headliners

“No name, no face, just music”: how does that translate at the door, on the floor, visuals, and photo/phone policy?

At the door: Guests are welcomed without any expectation of a headliner. Entry is about being part of the experience, not seeing a famous artist
On the floor: The DJ remains anonymous (behind a veil) for the first hours of the night, so the dancefloor energy comes entirely from the crowd and the music. People engage freely without preconceptions.
Visuals: We worked on exclusive lighting and scenography designed to accentuate the DJ’s anonymity and play with it. 

Photo / phone policy: We believe that, since most people usually take out their phones to record the DJ (as a habit), they shouldn’t do it this time. At least, that’s what we observed the first time we did this concept. We’re not going to ban phones this time, as we still want to observe crowd behavior. We want to keep it an immersive experience for everyone present, though, so any abuse will be reprimanded.


Why a central booth; how does it affect flow, sightlines, participation? What’s new in this edition’s scenography vs. 2020?
For the first edition, we worked with a traditional stage. This time, we’re working with a space that is fully customizable. We had a very cool scenography in mind and thought it would be interesting to place the DJ in the center while preventing everyone from seeing them, as a playful wink on the usual "boiler" stages. This setup changes the flow and sightlines: The light radiates from the center, and so does the music, a bit like a magic box. The crowd interacts more collectively, and participation becomes about the music and the vibe rather than following the DJ visually.

How do you ensure fair pay for non-DJ workers (drag, light engineers, techs)? Any minimums or parity rules?
Transparent allocation: We define the budget upfront, allocating fees to all contributors — lighting technicians, performers, graphic designers, and other essential staff. Everyone’s role is recognized and compensated.
Minimums and parity: While we don’t have rigid industry-wide rules, we aim for equitable distribution relative to responsibilities and time commitment. For example, our lighting technician, performers, and graphic designer all receive meaningful compensation rather than symbolic fees. This topic could easily warrant a dedicated article, but we also try to take into account a worker’s capacity to perform their role multiple times per week. If a role can only realistically be carried out on weekends and requires, for example, 24 hours of travel, this is factored into our calculations when determining fair pay.
Shared commitment: All team members understand the concept and the budget constraints, and we collectively prioritize fairness. If possible, we adjust fees to reduce disparities and ensure non-DJ workers are not undervalued.
Long-term goal: By demonstrating sustainable, fair practices, we hope to inspire a model where local crews and technical staff are consistently recognized and fairly paid.

Lessons from the 2020 veil-then-reveal (Lakuti & Tama Sumo); will you repeat that format?
The 2020 veil-then-reveal format taught us a lot about crowd behavior and the power of anonymity. Keeping the DJs hidden for the first part of the night heightened curiosity, focused attention on the music, and created a collective energy entirely centered on the dancefloor. The eventual reveal of Lakuti and Tama Sumo became a unique, memorable moment. A payoff for the shared experience.

We will indeed reproduce this format because it was exceptional. I hope everyone gets to experience it at least once in their lifetime. I still get chills thinking about it.

Risk, safety, and care: consent/anti-harassment/harm-reduction protocols for a 200-cap room.

Our charter:
We enforce a zero-tolerance policy for any form of discrimination: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, ageism, or any other discrimination based on origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or physical appearance.
Similarly, we have zero tolerance for any violation of consent or any form of harassment.
Our event aims to be inclusive and promotes kindness as a core value.
We also emphasize respect for the venue, the team, and the DJ so that everyone can fully and safely enjoy the party. Free water is available at the bar, and chill-out spaces are provided within the venue

Care culture: our team and performers are briefed in advance so that care isn’t just reactive but embedded in the atmosphere we create.

Why La Commune (Lyon) 

The venue: La Commune is one of the few spaces in Lyon that allows this kind of experimentation — a room that is open, flexible, and deeply connected to the city’s diversity. The venue is located inside a food court, it’s a very popular space that offers food from all over the world, and attracts a wide range of people. We also share a strong history with them, having already co-organized events like La Mona there.

Success metrics are not only “sold out” rooms its: crew retention, diversity on teams, community feedback, what will count as a win?

Of course, selling out is one indicator, but it’s far from the only one. For us, a win would mean:
Crew retention: if the people who worked with us: performers, technicians, designers want to come back for the next edition, it shows that we managed to value them properly. The performers crew and the designer were already the ones who collaborated with us in 2020, and we hope there will be many more to come!
Diversity & representation: making sure our teams, on and off stage, reflect different backgrounds and identities. It’s a constant point of attention, not an afterthought.
Community feedback: if people leave with the feeling that they’ve lived something special and tell us they’re waiting for the next one, that’s priceless.
Sustainability: being able to pay everyone fairly, cover our costs, and reinvest in the next edition without external dependence.




Nina Katashvili
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