Montreux Jazz Festival 2020 - Cancelled

From the organizer
We had been prepared for this for several days, but that takes nothing away from the sadness we feel today.

It is with deep regret that the organisers of the Montreux Jazz Festival must today announce that this year’s event, which was set to be held from 3 to 18 July 2020, will not take place. The programme planned for this summer will be partly carried over to next year’s Festival, which will take place from 2 to 17 July 2021.

This Thursday 16 April, the Swiss Federal Council announced that it would be gradually easing some of the protective measures against the coronavirus, but keeping the majority of the necessary hygiene and social distancing measures in place. As such, it is now impossible for us to consider holding an event on the scale of Montreux Jazz Festival in July, just as it is for our fellow organisers of other summer festivals in Switzerland and around the world. Public health concerns naturally take precedence over all other considerations.

This is the first time the Festival has had to be cancelled in its 53 years of making history, bringing people together and producing legendary musical moments. Until the very end, all of us here in the Festival team were still hoping to share these magical moments with everyone who, like us, cannot imagine a summer without the Montreux Jazz Festival. Our thoughts go out to the staff members, artists and their support teams, technicians and engineers and to all our partners who make the event possible, from local hotels and businesses to everyone who lives in Montreux, and of course our loyal festival-goers.

About the festival
Over 54 years the Montreux Jazz Festival has become a singular rendezvous in the world of music. For this edition, the Festival intends to tell its story and affirm its values and specificities in order to better project itself into the future. From its creation in 1967 by Claude Nobs, the Festival rapidly earned a reputation for fantastic concerts, unbelievable artistic collaborations, rare moments, improbable anecdotes, audacity, ambitious projects, and impulsive decisions.

The Festival has welcomed legendary artists into its idyllic embrace. Some, like Prince and Deep Purple, contributed to penning the legend of Montreux through their songs, while others, like David Bowie, Nina Simone, and Freddie Mercury came and lived in the region, or recorded albums here. The Festival has mixed all musical genres and discovered and nurtured talented young artists, carving out a permanent mark on the world map and in the hearts of the public. The Festival continues today to bring to life the unreasonable dreams of its founder.

Lineup
Lionel Richie / Lenny Kravitz