The Montreux Jazz Festival in numbers
Here’s a look at some eye-catching facts and figures behind the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland’s biggest annual music festival. The line-up for this year’s event, which runs from July 5-20, was announced on Thursday.
58
As usual, there is something for everyone at this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival – the 58th edition. The line-upExternal link – a total of 64 concerts – includes the traditional mix of old-timers and up-and-coming stars, from Alice Cooper, Lenny Kravitz and Sting (performing in a trio) to Raye (six-time Brit Award winner in 2024), Tyla and André 3000.
Divas Janelle Monáe, Róisín Murphy and Dionne Warwick will no doubt grace the Montreux stages in spectacular style. Among other highlights: 1980s new-wave pop icons Duran Duran and Soft Cell will be making their first appearance.
Electronic giants Kraftwerk and Massive Attack are returning to Montreux in a different natural setting. And 50 years on from Pink Floyd’s epic concert at the Montreux Casino, drummer and co-founder Nick Mason will be revisiting the band’s early years, from 1967 to 1972, with his Saucerful of Secrets project.
But where’s the jazz, I hear you ask? There’s a sprinkling of jazz on offer: Diana Krall, Trombone Shorty and Jon Batiste from New Orleans, London jazz linchpin, the Yussef Dayes Experience, and Icelandic singer Laufey.
5,500
This is the capacity of the “Lake Stage”, a specially created open-air venue that will be built on Lake Geneva with the Alps as a backdrop. It will be a much larger version of a temporary lake stage (500 capacity) that was constructed for the 2021 edition. In parallel, concerts will be held once again in the historic Montreux Casino (1,300 capacity seated and standing), which was used in the festival’s early years to host legends such as Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald.
The organisers have had to reinvent the festival layout again due to the main Auditorium Stravinski and Miles Davis Hall venues, located in the Convention Centre, being out of action owing to prolonged construction work, scheduled to continue until 2025. The organisers say the 60th edition should be able to return to the Conference Centre. The 2024 set-up is completed by 13 free stages along the extended 1,000-metre lake front.
518,052,412
The number of Spotify plays of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” – a Montreux classic. The opportunity of playing on a stage on Lake Geneva was too good to pass up for the English rockers. Deep Purple will be performing the famous guitar riffs on the “Lake Stage” on July 8, marking the band’s tenth appearance at the festival.
Deep Purple, formed in 1968, are considered the founders of hard rock alongside groups such as Led Zeppelin. But their music also features influences from classical and even jazz music. Deep Purple composed “Smoke on the Water” in Montreux, following a fire in the casino during a Frank Zappa concert in December 1971.
10,000
The budget of the first 1967 edition, one for jazz purists featuring Charles Lloyd and Keith Jarrett, was CHF10,000. This year it’s CHF30 million ($33 million).
The festival is estimated to generate around CHF80 million in economic income for Montreux and Vevey. During the two-week festival Montreux hotel owners earn around 20% of their annual turnover.
250,000
The two-week Rolls-Royce of international music festivals draws around 250,000 people each year. In Switzerland the open-air festivals Paléo Festival Nyon, Openair Frauenfeld, Zurich Openair and OpenAir St. Gallen also attract huge crowds.
With a capacity for more than 50,000 spectators, Zurich’s Letzigrund Stadium is the largest concert venue in Switzerland.
30
Jazz keyboardist Herbie HancockExternal link is the holder of the title “Artists with Most Performances” (30) at Montreux. The festival ambassador has previously shared a stage with Chick Corea, George Duke, Wayne Shorter, Quincy Jones and Carlos Santana, among many others.
5,000
A total of 5,000 Montreux Jazz concerts have been recorded live in audio and video and preserved under the guidance of the Claude Nobs Foundation.
This vast collection of live concert footage and audio spanning the entire 57-year history of the Montreux Jazz Festival – featuring the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin and Prince – has been given UNESCO heritage status.
Since the first edition of the festival in 1967, founder Claude Nobs kept a record of the music played there and built up the unique archive. Through a partnership with the nearby Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the archives have been entirely preserved and digitalised since 2017. They are also used for scientific purposes.
The collection comprises 17,000 hours of TV and audio recordings from 5,000 concerts collected on 10,000 original tapes in a dozen different formats. It is said to be the world’s biggest collection of taped live concerts.
2,159
The amount paid (UK pounds sterling) for three 1983 Montreux Jazz Festival posters designed by the American artist Keith Haring at a Sotheby’s auction in March 2023.
Every year the festival calls on artists to design its poster. Artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and JR have produced original designs in the past.
365
The price (in Swiss francs) for a seat ticket to see Bob Dylan in a 1,500-seater concert hall at the festival in 2023External link. He’s not appearing this year. Montreux has a reputation for pricey concert tickets. This year’s tickets are in the CHF88-158 price range. The latter to see Rag’n’Bone Man and Sting.
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