Montreux Jazz draws the crowds

American blues guitarist and singer Buddy Guy was among this year's impressive line-up of artists. © Keystone/ Valentin Flauraud

This year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, which ends on Saturday, has been a success, say organisers.

This 57^th edition of the famous festival has drawn some 250,000 music-lovers, thanks in large part to the free concerts which were full almost every evening, generating impressive queues. The average occupancy rate for the two paying venues was 90% over 32 evenings.

“I’m particularly happy with this year’s festival,” enthused festival director Mathieu Jaton as he brought the two-week event to a close. This is not only because of the excellent ticket sales but a spirit of sharing between artists and audiences which gave the event a “feeling of collective euphoria”, he said.

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Several artists mingled with the crowd, to the delight of the audience. These included Chilly Gonzales, who managed to do it with a seated audience, and Seal, who sang for over 30 minutes in the middle of the crowd. “Here, artists agree to give up a little of their intimacy,” said Jaton.

He noted that the weather had been good, apart from two days which were a bit “complicated”, owing to summer storms which even brought hail.

The attendance figures are on a par with last year and mean that ticket sales targets were met, according to the festival. This was despite a budget of CHF28 million ($32 million), one of the highest in the festival’s history.

Next year, the festival will take place from July 5 to 20, still in Montreux but with a different venue owing to improvement and renovation work on the Montreux Congress Centre. Jaton said broad details would be revealed in the autumn and that this constraint “should deliver something magic”.