The Salle Colonne can be hired for meetings, seminars, cocktail dinners, weddings and private parties, for up to 250 seated guests or 300 at a cocktail. The hall covers 380 m² and is the main production venue of the Orchestre Colonne. It stands at 94 boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.
Seminars and company events
For a company event, the hall offers a large floor of about 300 m² in front of an 80 m² stage, which suits a plenary session, a conference with speakers on stage or an awards evening. The hall is air-conditioned and equipped with Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet, a sound system, stage lighting and projection equipment. A cloakroom and a dressing room are available for speakers or performers.
The venue also rents the hall to performing-arts professionals for rehearsals, recordings and film shoots. Two sound booths of 17 m² and 12 m², orchestra equipment and stage equipment are part of that offer, and a piano is listed. For a company that wants to film or record its event, this technical base is already in the building.
Weddings and receptions
The Salle Colonne sells private hire for weddings and private parties as well as concerts and dance evenings. A seated dinner can take up to 250 guests and a standing reception up to 300. The stage can hold a band, a DJ or a small ensemble, and the hall has a catering area for the chosen caterer.
Rooms and capacities
The venue is one main hall with a stage. Figures given by the venue are 380 m² in total, a floor of 300 m², a stage of 80 m², 250 seats and 300 guests at a cocktail. Since 2021, the hall holds permits that allow events of up to 300 people. Support spaces include a cloakroom, a dressing room and two sound booths.
Catering
The hall has a catering area. The official site does not name an in-house caterer, so ask the team which caterers can work in the hall.
History and setting
The building at 94 boulevard Auguste-Blanqui went up in the early 1930s at the foot of the Butte-aux-Cailles, for the Paris typographers' union. In 1937 it became the Maison du Livre, where unions held their assemblies. The hall, with its floor, stage and balcony, opened the same year with a concert by the Orchestre Colonne conducted by Paul Paray.
In the 1950s, Philips set up a recording studio here, known as Studio Blanqui. Jacques Brel recorded Ne me quitte pas, Serge Gainsbourg Le poinçonneur des Lilas, Barbara Göttingen and Juliette Gréco La javanaise. Later renamed Studio Akustica, the hall kept recording classical music under the sound engineer Georges Kisselhoff, with Isaac Stern, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Scott Ross among the artists.
In 2010, the Orchestre Colonne bought the hall and named it after its founder, Édouard Colonne. Since 2021, works have brought out its Art Deco architecture, and the hall now hosts concerts, dance evenings and receptions as well as the orchestra's own season.
Getting there
The hall is on boulevard Auguste-Blanqui in the 13th arrondissement, between the Glacière and Corvisart stations on metro line 6. Paris-Orly is the closest airport.
