Christopher BarrettMontreux Jazz Festival will see an eclectic mix of headliners perform on a new mainstage erected on Lake Geneva, while the 58th edition of the event will also mark a return to staging music in the city’s historic Casino, which burnt down in the 1970s and inspired Deep Purple’s hit Smoke on the Water.
Deep Purple will return to perform on the lake this year, while other headliners at the 5-20 July festival will include Raye (pictured), Sting, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, Janelle Monáe, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Jungle, Duran Duran, André 3000 and Air.
More than 50 years after Pink Floyd played the festival, the band’s drummer and co-founder Nick Mason will return to the event with a performance of the same material as part of his Saucerful of Secrets focusing on the band’s founding years, from 1967 to 1972.
The changes to the festival’s layout and infrastructure have been made due to construction work on the Convention Centre, which usually hosts the festival’s major shows. The new 5,000 capacity stage on the lake will be 35m wide/23m deep/17m high, and feature a sound system provided by Meyer Sound; a partner of the festival for more than thirty years.
With a capacity of 1,300, the Casino Stage will consist of a half-seated and half-standing configuration.
The festival will also involve other new lakeside stages, many of them free-to-attend, with an expected attendance of 250,000 across the event. It is expected to contribute €80m to the local economy this year.