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MONTREUX

Sun brings Montreux festivalgoers out in force

There were no dark clouds over Montreux’s annual Jazz Festival this year, which was played out under sunny skies in front of appreciative lakeside audiences.

Published: 20 July 2015 09:21 CEST
Sun brings Montreux festivalgoers out in force
Photo: Montreux Jazz Festival

Organisers of the 49th festival reported that this year’s event passed off particularly smoothly, with audiences and artists equally enthusiastic.

The eclectic music on offer – Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga rubbed shoulders with Sinéad O’Connor and Lionel Ritchie – drew around 240,000 visitors, similar to 2013 figures.

Thanks to the 92,000 tickets sold and a very positive balance sheet, the festival’s accounts are in the black, organisers said in a statement.

The programme on offer went down well with the public, they said, with a mix of musical genres and generations.

Improvisation was also a key feature at this Montreux Jazz Festival which included jam sessions.

The festival, held in Montreux on the banks of Lake Geneva, kicked off on July 3rd with American R&B artist John Legend and Scottish pop singer Emeli Sandé.

Headline artists Lady Gaga and Bennett performed on the 6th with top tickets selling for 385 francs apiece.

Electro groups Portishead and the Chemical Brothers were among other headliners.

The festival organisers said preparations were already underway for next year’s 50th anniversary event to take place from July 1st to 16th.

 

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FESTIVAL

France’s Fête de la musique ‘will go ahead, with masks and a curfew’

France's famous summer music festival the Fête de la musique will go ahead, but with health restrictions in place, says the culture minister.

Published: 18 May 2021 16:09 CEST
France's Fête de la musique 'will go ahead, with masks and a curfew'
Photo: ABDULMONAM EASSA / AFP

Culture minister Roselyn Bachelot, taking part in a Q&A session with readers of French newspaper le Parisien, confirmed that the annual summer festival will go ahead this year on its usual date of June 21st.

The festival date is normally marked with thousands of events across France, from concerts in tiny villages to huge open-air events in big cities and street-corner gigs in local neighbourhoods.

Last year the festival did go ahead, in a scaled-down way, and Bachelot confirmed that the 2021 event will also happen, but with restrictions.

She said: “It will be held on 21st June and will not be subject to the health passport.

“People will be able to dance, but it will be a masked party with an 11pm curfew.”

Under France’s phased reopening plan, larger events will be allowed again from June 9th, but some of them will require a health passport (with either a vaccination certificate or a recent negative test) to enter.

The Fête de la musique, however, is generally focused around lots of smaller neighbourhood concerts.

The curfew is being gradually moved back throughout the summer before – if the health situation permits – being scrapped entirely on June 30th.

Bachelot added: “I appeal to everyone’s responsibility.

“The rate of 50 percent of people vaccinated should have been reached by then, so we will reach an important level of immunity.”

The Fête de la musique is normally France’s biggest street party, with up to 18,000 events taking place across the country on the same day.

It’s hugely popular, despite being (whisper it) the idea of an American – the concept is the brainchild of American Joel Cohen, when he was working as a music producer for French National Radio (France Musique) in the 1970s.

By 1982 the French government put its weight behind the idea and made it an official event and it’s been a fixture in the calendar ever since. 

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