Montreux stages annual Jazz Festival

It's summer and the time of year for a series of music festivals in Switzerland. World famous is of course the Montreux Jazz Festival, held this year July 2-17.

It’s summer and the time of year for a series of music festivals in Switzerland. World famous is of course the Montreux Jazz Festival, on between July 2-17.

This year, 2,200 musicians are playing at the lakeside resort.

This year’s line-up includes Alanis Morissette, R.E.M, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones and Marianne Faithfull, and the festival will live up to its name with an evening entitled “Jazz at the Top”, featuring concerts by Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and David Sanborn.

Last year, a record number of 200,000 visitors attended the festival. And due to unprecedented television coverage, the organisers say the 33rd Montreux Jazz Festival promises to reach a wider audience than ever.

For the first time, the United States television network CNN as well as the music television channel MTV are broadcasting festival reports. Festival director Claude Nobs said the coverage would allow Montreux to reach a potential audience of one billion people.

Source: sda-ats