Montreux Jazz Festival reinvents format for 2024
Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) has unveiled a reimagined layout for its 58th edition while its traditional main venue undergoes construction work.
Set to be held from 5-20 July 2024, the storied Swiss event is reinventing itself in the town with an extended route along the quay, plus a brand-new 5,000-cap stage to be built on top of Lake Geneva itself.
It will also see a return to the Casino, where the festival started in 1967, along with a large number of free stages as it continues to accommodate its usual 250,000 capacity across the duration of the event. The Casino Stage will have a capacity of 1,300 and a half-seated, half-standing configuration.
The changes have been made due to construction work on the Montreux Music and Convention Centre Congress Centre (2m2c), which usually hosts the festival’s major shows, with work scheduled to continue until 2025. A stage was previously created on the lake in 2021.
“It was very clear when we came back in ’22 that we were going to bring in a lot of changes to transform the festival and take it into the future”
“It is never business as usual at Montreux,” MJF CEO Mathieu Jaton told IQ earlier this year. “It was very clear when we came back in ’22 that we were going to bring in a lot of changes to transform the festival and take it into the future. And ’24 will be another challenge because we have to move the festival from the Congress Centre as [redevelopment] work will be starting just after the festival this summer.”
The reigning top festival (Ligger’s Favourite Festival) at ILMC’s Arthur Awards, the Swiss festival pulled in around 250,000 fans to the shores of Lake Geneva this year for its combination of free and ticketed concerts.
Artists included Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Simply Red, Iggy Pop, Generation Sex, Norah Jones, Seal, Joe Bonamassa, Nile Rodgers & Chic and Mark Ronson.
MJF was the subject of the 2023 documentary mini-series, They All Came Out To Montreux, which premiered in the UK earlier this month on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. The three-part doc details the history of the event and its legendary founder Claude Nobs, who died in January 2013 following a skiing accident. Jaton speaks about Nobs’ enduring legacy here.
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Montreux Jazz Festival ’23 pulls in 250k fans
Ticket sales for this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) were among the best in history according to organisers, with venue capacity averaging close to 90% across the event.
Held from 30 June to 15 July, the Swiss festival pulled in around 250,000 fans to the shores of Lake Geneva for its combination of free and ticketed concerts.
Artists included Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Simply Red, Iggy Pop, Generation Sex, Norah Jones, Seal and Joe Bonamassa, with co-headliners Nile Rodgers & Chic and Mark Ronson bringing proceedings to a close on Saturday at the 4,000-cap Auditorium Stravinski and 2,000-cap Montreux Jazz Lab, respectively.
“I’m particularly happy with this year’s festival,”festival director Mathieu Jaton tells Swiss Info, noting the spirit of sharing between artists and audiences gave the event a “feeling of collective euphoria”. The event enjoyed good weather apart from two “complicated” days of summer storms, he adds.
MJF reports that attendance figures were on a par with last year, meaning its ticket sale targets were met despite its budget of 28 million Swiss francs (€29m) being one of the highest in its 57-year history. Tickets for most shows were priced between 88 and 145fr, while admission for Bob Dylan’s sold-out show was 365fr.
Its free stages, meanwhile, offered festival-goers a selection of five or six successive performances each evening.
“We have to find a new and brilliant ID for ’24 and ’25, so that’s going to be a major challenge”
Due to major renovation work, 2m2c (Montreux Music and Convention Centre Congress Centre) will be unavailable for the next two years of the event, with a new 5,000-cap stage set to be introduced on the lake. The festival’s perimeter will be moved between the Fairmont le Montreux Palace and the Place du Marché, with the exact format to be announced by the end of the year.
“It is never business as usual at Montreux,” Jaton recently told IQ. “It was very clear when we came back in ’22 that we were going to bring in a lot of changes to transform the festival and take it into the future. And ’24 will be another challenge because we have to move the festival from the Congress Centre as [redevelopment] work will be starting just after the festival this summer.
“We have to find a new and brilliant ID for ’24 and ’25, so that’s going to be a major challenge. And then June ’26 is the 60th anniversary, so we have some nice years in front of us.”
A series of spin-off events will take place prior to MJF’s return from 5-20 July 2024. They include the second edition of Montreux Jazz Festival China (27 September-2 October 2023), the fourth edition of the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation Autumn Festival (4-7 October) and the third edition of the Rio Montreux Jazz Festival (12-14 October).
Plus, the second MJF Spotlight Sessions in Villars is set for February-March 2024, while the first edition of the three-day MJF Miami in Coconut Grove – which will comprise international programming mixed with well-known local artists – is planned for early March 2024.
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‘It’s never business as usual at Montreux’
Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) chief Mathieu Jaton has discussed the next stage of the event’s evolution as it prepares to break from the norm in 2024.
The reigning top festival (Ligger’s Favourite Festival) at ILMC’s Arthur Awards, MJF’s 2023 edition launches today with sets by Simply Red and Tom Odell at the 4,000-cap Auditorium Stravinski and Jimi Jules and Rufus Du Sol in the 2,000-cap Montreux Jazz Lab.
The 57th festival will follow the same format as last year’s post Covid return, maintaining the Lake House space that was introduced in 2022 to showcase emerging jazz talent. But changes are already afoot for 2024 as MJF’s 2m2c (Montreux Music and Convention Centre Congress Centre) venue will be out of commission due to redevelopment work. As a result, plans are afoot for a new 5,000-cap stage on the lake.
“It is never business as usual at Montreux,” laughs MJF CEO Jaton. “It was very clear when we came back in ’22 that we were going to bring in a lot of changes to transform the festival and take it into the future. And ’24 will be another challenge because we have to move the festival from the Congress Centre as [redevelopment] work will be starting just after the festival this summer.
“We have to find a new and brilliant ID for ’24 and ’25, so that’s going to be a major challenge. And then June ’26 is the 60th anniversary, so we have some nice years in front of us.”
“The perception of the Montreux brand is getting greater and greater”
Other performers at the Swiss festival, which runs until 15 July on the shores of Lake Geneva, will include Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Lil Nas X, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones, Sam Smith, Seal and Nile Rodgers.
“We’ve been elected as the best European festival this year for the second time and the perception of the Montreux brand is getting greater and greater,” Jaton tells IQ. “The format of Montreux is different from other open-air festivals, for sure, and we have a mix of programming that stays close to our DNA. When you put it all together at the end it is quite successful. Now, we’re just hoping for good weather!”
Jaton says ticket sales have moved at a faster pace than last year, when the festival attracted 250,000 people (approximately 100,000 for paid concerts and 150,000 for its 450 free events).
More sets will be livestreamed than ever before, with over 40 performances from the Auditorium Stravinski and Jazz Lab to be available to watch free of charge on the MJF website and YouTube channel as part of the festival and the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation’s mission to make music accessible to all.
Jaton also gave an update on efforts to strengthen the Montreux Jazz Festival brand worldwide, with spin-offs in Miami, Abu Dhabi and Ibiza all in the offing.
“Fingers crossed… there could be six Montreux Jazz Festivals internationally in 2024”
“We have a complete ecosystem of the festival, which is of course the festival itself in Montreux, but also the Montreux Jazz Artist Foundation,” he explains. “We also have Multimedia Ventures and Montreux Jazz International, which is developing MJF Cafes and the festival around the world.
“We have three international festivals historically, in Tokyo, China and Rio. China and Rio are taking place in October. And we’re planning to open Montreux Jazz Festival in Miami in March ’24; Montreuz Jazz Festival in Abu Dhabi in March ’24 and Montreux Jazz Festival in Ibiza in autumn ’24.
“Fingers crossed, but if it works there could be six Montreux Jazz Festivals internationally in ’24. And it’s not a copy and paste format, it’s bringing the DNA of Montreux to each of those countries, using the rules of each of these countries.”
MJF was the subject of the recent documentary mini-series, They All Came Out To Montreux, which premiered in the UK earlier this month on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. The three-part doc details the history of the event and its legendary founder Claude Nobs, who died in January 2013 following a skiing accident. Jaton speaks about Nobs’ enduring legacy here.
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Montreux Jazz Festival boss on Claude Nobs’ legacy
Montreux Jazz Festival CEO Mathieu Jaton has spoken to IQ about the legacy of the event’s celebrated founder Claude Nobs, 10 years on from his passing.
The 57th festival will be held from 30 June to 15 July, with headliners including Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones, Seal, Joe Bonamassa and Nile Rodgers.
Jaton says ticket sales are pacing ahead of last year’s event, which attracted an estimated 250,000 fans to become MJF’s most-well attended edition yet.
“We’re very confident and very proud of the lineup, and sales are going great,” he tells IQ. “We had record sales for last year and tickets are moving faster than last year, which is a very good sign. A lot of the concerts are already sold out, which is cool, so I’m a happy man.”
Montreux Jazz Festival won the top festival award (Ligger’s Favourite Festival) at the 2023 Arthur Awards earlier this year, and the Swiss institution is the subject of a new documentary mini-series, They All Came Out To Montreux. The three-part presentation, which premieres in the UK tonight (Friday 16 June) at 10.15pm BST on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer, details the history of the event and Nobs, who died in January 2013 following a skiing accident.
“You see the passion, love and authenticity of Claude’s relationships with artists very clearly”
“This year is the 10th anniversary of Claude passing, so it is a very good timing that this documentary will be released finally internationally on the BBC,” says Jaton.
They All Came Out To Montreux features more than 40 testimonies, 30 performances and a variety of previously unseen images, is directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray, executive produced by Quincy Jones and produced by BMG and Beyond TNC. MJF announced a multi-faceted global partnership with BMG in 2021.
The series has been made in association with MJF’s media company Montreux Media Ventures (MMV), which was launched in 2019 to develop year-round content and events for corporate clients, labels and brands.
“The most emotional thing for me is that you see the passion, love and authenticity of Claude’s relationships with artists very clearly in the documentary,” says Jaton. “That’s what makes Montreux completely different because Claude was not a businessman; he was not a regular promoter; he was an artist lover on a human level.
“The most beautiful heritage Claude gave us except for the festival, the brand and all the things he created, of course, is the love of everybody around him. When he passed away 10 years ago, the first call I got was from Quincy [Jones] and he said, ‘Claude was my brother, Claude was one of the people on earth that I loved so much. Now, we have to continue his patrimony for the future and I will be with you whenever you want.’
“Montreux is always trying to keep to that spirit of Claude, which is the heart before the business”
“Most of those artists could have said, ‘Okay, Claude passed away and that’s sad, and now I’m doing something else.’ But no, the loyalty of those people is still there and that’s amazing, and that’s exactly what this documentary shows – all those relationships, which are key in the DNA of Montreux, are real and authentic.”
Jaton, who began working for the festival in 1999, discloses a conversation he had with his mentor shortly before Nobs’ death at the age of 76.
“Two months before Claude passed away, he told me something very important,” remembers Jaton. “It’s bizarre when you think back because he passed away by accident, but he said to me, ‘You know why I chose you? I know that you understand the DNA and spirit of the festival, and you will transform it into the future.’ And that’s exactly what we’re doing – not looking to the past, but only looking to the future – transforming the festival every year, but keeping that DNA and the legacy of Claude.
“The legacy of Claude is not only the big names, it’s really a mindset: a mindset of hospitality; a mindset of passion, of love. We know the music business now is just that – a business – but Montreux is always trying to keep to that spirit of Claude, which is the heart before the business.”
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Montreux Jazz Fest chief maps out expansion plans
Montreux Jazz Festival CEO Mathieu Jaton has told IQ of his global ambitions for the brand following the Swiss institution’s most-well attended edition yet.
Held from 1-16 July, the festival’s 56th edition attracted an estimated 250,000 fans for a bill comprising over 450 free events, along with 70 paying concerts by headliners including Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Bjork, John Legend, Maneskin, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Van Morrison, Stormzy and Diana Ross.
“It was totally amazing, what a comeback! Everything was perfect from beginning to end,” says Jaton. “The weather was exceptional, tickets sales were better than ever and the number of people coming onsite for all the free activities was amazing.
“We had a lot of concerns before the festival about having to cancel due to Covid, but nothing happened. When you have 550 different shows with 3,000 musicians and everybody is on stage, we can call that a miracle.”
A number of artists deviated from their usual setlists to perform special shows for Montreux. Stormzy delivered a one-off anthological gospel-rap performance “because it’s the Montreux Jazz Festival”. Elsewhere, The Smile played new six-minute song Bending Hectic, composed at the festival earlier that day, which continued the tradition of tracks being created in Montreux, from Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water to Prince’s Lavaux.
“It was very clear that 2022 should not be a copy and paste of what we were doing in 2019”
“It’s very interesting for me that after 56 years, the DNA and tradition of Montreux being a bubble of creativity – a place where artists can create and do something special – [is still intact],” says Jaton. “These moments are key, because they are writing the next pages of the history of Montreux.”
The festival – founded in 1967 by the legendary Claude Nobs – entered into a partnership with TikTok on new music initiative MJF Spotlight, which was launched in 2021 to support emerging artists and new music with original content creation and live performances.
“That partnership is very important strategically,” notes Jaton. “We’ve made a lot of effort with the creation of our media company Montreux Media Ventures to regenerate the audience, and that’s what we did. We had brand new artists playing on the free stages and attracting a new audience, and that’s an investment in the future.
“I’m very happy to say that 60% of [festival attendees] are loyal visitors who have been coming for a lot of years, but 40% are brand new visitors and it is very important to have both.”
MJF’s 2020 edition was replaced by a 16-day YouTube event, Summer of Music, while last year’s MJF went ahead in a reimagined, Covid-secure format, with maximum of 600 people able to watch performances on the main stage from seats on the Lake Geneva shoreline. Continuing the hybrid physical/digital format debuted in 2021, 30 shows from this year’s programme were also livestreamed.
This year’s revamped event also integrated features such as the new Lake House venue, which combined cultural and artistic experiences in eight rooms across three floors in the Petit Palais.
“For me, it was very clear that 2022 should not be a copy and paste of what we were doing in 2019,” explains Jaton. “We took all the knowledge we accumulated from the last two years and 2022 was the closing of the circle of everything that we’ve created. So 2023 will definitely be a continuation of what we put in place in 2022, but there will be more innovation to come.”
“We are full of ideas to extend the Montreux brand all around the world”
Jaton also opens up on plans to strengthen Montreux Jazz Festival as an all-year-round brand, and teases the possibility of a winter spin-off.
“We will push the button a little bit further, continuing the brand recognition of Montreux 365 days a year with Autumn of Music [festival] in the autumn, with maybe a festival in winter next February, and then the Montreux Jazz Festival in the summer, of course. We are full of ideas to extend the Montreux brand all around the world.”
International festivals will also be held under the MJF umbrella in China, Tokyo and Brazil in the coming months.
“We’re very excited,” adds Jaton. “The expansion of the Montreux brand worldwide is not something new because we had the Montreux Jazz Festival in Atlanta for 15 years, in Detroit for 20 years, Tokyo for 10 years, Singapore, Monaco, Sao Paulo… We also had the Montreux Jazz Cafe in Harrods for four years in London, and we also have a cafe that will be in Singapore.
“China, of course, is a brand new market for music, which is very interesting for us. So the goal for us is to have brand recognition worldwide.”
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Festival leaders talk uncertain future in latest IQ Focus session
Representatives from some of Europe’s best-loved festivals took part in the second of IQ’s virtual panel sessions yesterday (14 May), reflecting on the long-term impact of the coronavirus crisis on this important seasonal sector of the industry.
Available to watch back now here, as well as on Facebook and Youtube, the session saw AEG Presents’ Jim King, FKP Scorpio’s Stephan Thanscheidt, Bloodstock Open Air’s Rachael Greenfield, Roskilde Festival’s Anders Wahren and Montreux Jazz festival’s Mathieu Jaton offer their opinions on the biggest challenges facing the festival industry post Covid-19 and the steps the sector must take for recovery.
Although Thanscheidt stated FKP was “planning on having a normal season in 2021”, others did not share his optimism.
For King, the negative effects of the coronavirus crisis will continue to harm the sector until a vaccine is created. “I am severely doubtful that anything is going to take place this year and I’m somewhat doubtful about Q1 next year,” said AEG’s CEO of European Festivals.
The festival supply chain is of particular concern to King, given the number of independent festivals that face collapse due to the current situation.
“These community festivals provide income for freelancers and suppliers of all sizes,” said King, citing a recent Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) report which warns that 92% of its members could be bankrupted by refund requests.
“I think overall the average price for an artist will come down, and I think you’ll see that on touring too”
“If those festivals are impacted, the supply chain will be dramatically affected as well. This has a massive ripple out to the wider industry,” said King. “The impact will be seismic, and that’s an understatement.”
The panel agree that fan confidence had taken “a battering”, and that the coronavirus crisis will lead to fans having less money to spend. As a result, “there’s going to be a correction across costs generally” to account, argued King.
“Artists are going to get paid less because staff and suppliers are going to get paid less – everyone’s going to have to take a big bite of this to protect our relationship with the fan.
“Some [artists] won’t tour if they have to take a cut. But I think overall the average price for an artist will come down, and I think you’ll see that on touring too.”
Beyond the pressure on costs and artist fees, guests referenced the incompatibility of festivals with any form of social distancing measures.
“A festival is all about bringing people together. To institute any form of social distancing… I fail to see how that could work,” said Greenfield, who cancelled the 2020 edition of Bloodstock earlier this month. “To be able to have a good time you can’t separate people – that’s not what a festival is about.”
“A festival is all about bringing people together. To institute any form of social distancing… I fail to see how that could work”
Wahren, head of programming at Roskilde Festival, which was forced to cancel this year due to the Danish government’s summer-long events ban, agreed that “it’s all or nothing”.
“I can’t see us running a festival wearing masks or standing one metre apart.”
For Wahren, alternative forms of live events such as drive-in concerts, although fun, are mere stopgap solutions and “not what we are in this business for”.
Session host and ILMC head Greg Parmley asked each guests for a positive lesson that the last two months had taught them. Unanimously, all spoke of an overwhelming sense of audience loyalty towards their events.
Full festival tickets for Roskilde 2021 sold out in a matter of hours earlier this week, with 85% of ticketholders holding onto their tickets for next year. Thanscheidt cited similar numbers for FKP’s twin festivals, Hurricane and Southside, with 75 to 80% of fans expected to retain their tickets for 2021, and Greenfield put refund requests for Bloodstock at just 8%.
“We also managed to roll over 95% of bands for next year, which surprisingly wasn’t at all difficult,” added the Bloodstock director.
In Germany, parliament is set to pass new laws regarding the refund system in the next few days, said Thanscheidt. The German government is among those to protect corona-hit event organisers by allowing them to offer credit vouchers instead of cash refunds.
“There is a great opportunity for us to reshape the industry, we’ve just got to get to the point to allow ourselves to do so”
And beyond the fans themselves, panellists highlighted the solidarity shown throughout the industry, with many pulling together to support others in need.
However, a more unified approach to tackling the crisis is needed. According to Thanscheidt, “it’s time to team up and start lobbying on a pan-European level.”
For Jaton, the unification should go further still. “The first steps right now are to save the industry in individual countries, but we are an interdependent industry – we are very dependent on the US, so if there is a problem in the US, that’s half our festival gone [talent wise].”
King agreed, saying that, as an industry, “we have still not set out what our key objectives are”.
“Everyone’s thinking very differently about when we recover. We’ve got to put in a longer term plan over multiple cycles and we need to align on how we can collectively come out of this.
“There is a great opportunity for us to reshape the industry, we’ve just got to get to the point to allow ourselves to do so.”
The next IQ Focus session, The Venue’s Venue: Building Back, takes place on Thursday 21 May at 3.30 p.m. BST/4.30 p.m. CET, with speakers John Langford (AEG Europe), Lucy Noble (Royal Albert Hall/NAA), Olivier Toth (Rockhal/EAA), Oliver Hoppe (Wizard Promotions), Tom Lynch (ASM Global) and Lotta Nibell (GOT Event).
Get an automatic reminder when the live stream starts via Facebook Live or YouTube Live.
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Montreux Jazz Festival launches worldwide hotel tour
Switzerland’s renowned Montreux Jazz Festival has partnered with luxury hotel chain Fairmont Hotels and Resort Group to launch the 2020 Fairmont World Tour, a concert series taking place across the group’s 13 global properties.
The tour, which features nu-soul artist Jalen N’Gonda and soul-inspired artist Bobby Bazini, kicks off on 29 January in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before visiting cities in North America, Asia and Europe, ending on 7 March in Montreux, Switzerland.
Both artists form part of the non-profit Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation (MAJF) and performed at Montreux Jazz Festival 2019.
The Fairmont partnership is the first project for the newly created Montreux Media Ventures, which launched in December with the aim of keeping the festival’s spirit alive all year round, creating custom content for corporate clients, labels and brands.
“The Montreux Jazz Festival is proud to bring emerging musical talent to audiences all around the world, in a series of exclusive intimate and enriching experiences,” comments Montreux Jazz CEO Mathieu Jaton.
“The Montreux Jazz Festival is proud to bring emerging musical talent to audiences all around the world, in a series of exclusive intimate and enriching experiences”
“This global musical adventure highlights Fairmont’s hospitality excellence, as well as our shared passion for music and commitment to supporting the next generation of artist.”
A Fairmont representative says the group “is thrilled to scale up its partnership with Montreux Jazz Festival”, following a pilot European tour in 2018, which saw Jalen N’Gonda performing at four Fairmont hotels.
“With these exclusive live music activations in partnership with Montreux Jazz Festival, Fairmont will bring young, raw, next generation musical talent to Fairmont guests and visitors around the world.”
John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Ramones are among famous artists to have performed at Fairmont hotels over the years.
More information on the Fairmont World Tour can be found here.
Montreux 2020 will take place from 3 to 18 July, with headliners including Lionel Richie and Lenny Kravitz. Read IQ’s feature celebrating 50 years of Montreux Jazz Festival here.
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