Lyon Shibari
Volunteer-run non-profit association founded in 2014 to promote safe rope practice, and, by its own description, the first shibari association in France.
Lyon Shibari is a non-profit association whose stated purpose is to promote and popularize shibari and to encourage safe rope practice through classes, workshops and training sessions. A listing on the Lyon guide Toolyon says it was founded in 2014, is run entirely by volunteers, and since December 2019 has had its own 50 m² space in the 3rd arrondissement, with changing rooms, toilets and a wooden structure for practice and teaching. The same listing describes the space as discreet and accessible to people with reduced mobility. The association also lends its room to other groups: the queer collective Coven Cordes holds most of its classes and jams there.
Teaching is built in levels. Toolyon describes Level 1 as basic knots, technique, communication and safety, and Level 2 as deeper technique and kinbaku-style play. On the association’s HelloAsso page in November 2026, the beginner track was a monthly cycle of seven classes running from September 2026 to January 2027, priced from €150 to €300. For people who already have the basics, “evolving” level 2+ classes offer seven stand-alone four-hour sessions, each on its own theme; the one on 15 November 2026 covered yoko-zuri (side suspension), from €15. Guest teachers come for weekend workshops, such as a creativity workshop with the teacher Cyanhur on 5 and 6 December 2026, listed at €200.
Around the classes, Toolyon lists weekly open practice, free discovery evenings, rope jams, social evenings, and performances and events outside the premises, and says members get insurance cover and access to members-only equipment. A central purchasing service supplies starter gear such as rope, shears and a furoshiki cloth for carrying it.
Membership is required for the activities. For the 2026–2027 season it costs €35 and runs from September to August; a one-day membership costs €5. The HelloAsso page says membership gives access to all activities and to the members’ shop, commits members to the association’s rules, and is completed by filling in a form with a volunteer at an event. Toolyon names respect, sharing, courtesy, clear communication, safety and consent among the association’s values. In November 2026 the association’s own website was under construction and pointed visitors to its social media and a Discord server; its pages are in French.