Montreux Jazz Festival sees crowds return after Covid uncertainty

This year's edition marked not just a return to normal following Covid restrictions, but among the highest attendance of the past ten years. © Keystone / Gabriel Monnet

This year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, which ends on Saturday, has seen a return to the large crowds of the pre-Covid years, with more than 250,000 people attending.

Organisers put this down to the quality of the line-up, a reinvented festival site and 16 consecutive days of sunshine.

“The gods of show business and the weather were with us this year,” festival director Mathieu Jaton told a press conference on Friday. He said he was “over the moon” and felt “so much emotion” after two years of the pandemic and uncertainty.

Montreux Jazz, which has been going for over 50 years, was forced to cancel in 2020 because of Covid-19. Last year’s festival was a downsized affair and a pale reflection of itself, even if a floating stage on Lake Geneva with mountains in the background caught the imagination of artists and fans.

Jaton, whose emotions were visible as he broke down in tears, said this year’s attendance was not just a return to normal but was among one of the highest. This year’s edition “recorded one of the best attendance figures for paying venues in the last ten years”, said Jaton.

The event, lasting from July 1 to 16, has featured some 70 artists on its two paying stages, including A-ha, Nick Cave, Diana Ross, Björk, Maneskin, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Jeff Beck with Johnny Depp. American jazz great Herbie Hancock will grace the stage on Saturday night, helping to close this edition.