Opening of the 56th Montreux Jazz Festival
The 56th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival starts today. Until July 16, live music can finally be celebrated to the full in Montreux with more than 500 concerts and activities on 13 stages, reflecting the diversity of the Festival’s programme.
On 13 July 2019, a certain Quincy Jones closed the 53rd edition in the Stravinsky Auditorium. Tonight, 1,084 days later, the Festival will finally return to its cathedral. A timeless anthem will mark its return: the famous “Take on Me” will be sung by the trio a-ha. At the opening of the Montreux Jazz Lab, the arrival of Sophie Hunger, Dino Brandão and Faber also symbolises a some kind of return to normality. After their trio concert on an ephemeral lake stage last summer, the three Swiss artists will each present their solo project in the Festival’s emblematic listening conditions.
New features of this edition
More than ever, the Montreux Jazz Festival reaffirms its desire to innovate while preserving its values of proximity and quality of welcome. A major new feature of this year’s Festival is the Lake House, which embodies this spirit through its eight rooms, each of which offers a tailor-made, intimate experience. More than 250 activities will invite the public to make musical, cultural or technological discoveries. Starting today with a special Bowie evening at the Cinema, a concert by British jazz sensation Emma-Jean Thackray at the Memphis and numerous interventions by techno pioneer Carl Craig, who will move from room to room to present a workshop, a vinyl and a DJ set.
In addition to the Lake House, two new venues have been added to the free programme: the Ipanema, an electro stage with its feet in the water, and the Super Bock Stage in the Parc Vernex, which has been completely redesigned as a beer garden.
Live Streaming Concerts
Once again this year, the Festival is collaborating with Qello Concerts by Stingray to offer live broadcasts of a series of concerts from the 56th edition. You can watch them for free from home: a-ha, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Black Pumas, Yola, John McLaughlin, Asaf Avidan and many others. The livestreams will be available on qello.com/mjf. The stream will also be broadcast on Blue TV.
