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‘Dizzying panorama of sound’: Swiss Montreux Jazz Festival announces lineup

The Montreux Jazz Festival is to return this summer promising a "dizzying panorama of sound" after two years muted by the pandemic, with Diana Ross, Bjork, Stormzy and Herbie Hancock in the line-up unveiled on Wednesday.

Published: 13 April 2022 17:25 CEST
Revellers at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2021. Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
Revellers at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2021. Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

The 56th festival, from July 1 to 16 in the idyllic town on Lake Geneva, is turning to old friends and some new faces from the world of pop, rap, jazz and rock to get the show back up and running.

“After two editions of enforced silence, the two emblematic halls of the festival will finally be able to give the public and the artists the thrill of live performance again,” organisers said.

For more than half a century, Montreux has been a magnet for big names in the music business, as well as for rising stars. It has retained its jazz label despite dramatically expanding its repertoire since the first edition in 1967.

The 2020 festival was cancelled outright due to Covid-19, while the 2021 event was dramatically scaled down, featuring a small stage 25 metres (80 feet) out on the lake, opposite a grandstand holding 500 spectators.

The 2022 programme, “dense and bursting with colour, once again combines the timeless with the spirit of the times,” organisers said. 

Legend in the line-up 

Norwegian synth-pop trio a-ha are the opening night’s act in the 4,000-capacity Auditorium Stravinski, with the first weekend also featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds followed by Icelandic songstress Bjork with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne.

John Legend, Paolo Nutini, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Diana Ross, the Alan Parsons Live Project, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Van Morrison Jeff Beck and Eurovision-winning Italian rockers Maneskin are also set to star on the main stage.

Meanwhile, the all-standing 2,000-capacity Montreux Jazz Lab will feature The Smile — a new project by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood — and British rapper Stormzy.

The festival will be closed by jazz piano great Hancock, 82, and Jamie Cullum. Motown idol Ross is making her Montreux debut at 78, while Bjork is returning for the first time in 24 years as she releases her 10th album. “This 2022 edition has a special flavour.

First of all because, like the world of culture in general, it is a sign that life is getting back on track,” said the festival’s chief executive Mathieu Jaton.

“We are all emerging from this crisis in different ways; some bruised, some stronger, some weakened, some hardened. But let us not forget that a festival is above all a moment of sharing and celebration.”

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COVID-19

What does the increase in the number of Covid cases in Switzerland mean?

Coronavirus infections are on the rise again, with Swiss health officials and epidemiologists expressing concern over the possible evolution of the disease.

Published: 15 November 2023 15:32 CET
What does the increase in the number of Covid cases in Switzerland mean?

While the worst of the Covid pandemic is long over, and experts don’t expect it to re-emerge with the same strength and health consequences as it had in 2020, new cases have been reported in the past weeks.

Wastewater analysis, one of the means employed by health officials to measure the presence of coronavirus, indicates a viral load that is at least five times higher than usual, with values “now almost as high as in some previous Omicron-related waves,” Christoph Ort, spokesperson for Eawag Institute, which traces Covid viruses in 14 wastewater treatment plants in Switzerland, told the media.

What does this mean?

According to Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the most common sub-variant in Switzerland right now is the highly transmissible XBB, also known as ‘Kraken.’

The Eris and Pirola variants, which circulated in the summer and early fall are also still present.

While none is nearly as dangerous (at least for most people) as the early Alpha and Delta viruses, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the early stages of the pandemic, there is a reason for concern nevertheless.

“It’s a start of a small wave,” said Rudolf Hauri, head of the Cantonal Doctors’ Association.

“More people are being admitted to hospitals again with, or because of, coronavirus. There are also new cases in intensive care units, but these are generally people with a medical history.”

Should you be worried?
 
While the number of people with serious Covid-related complications is not expected to be as high as previously, the rise in the number of infections should not be trivialised either, infectious disease specialists say.
 
This is especially important for people in the high-risk category — those over 65 or suffering from chronic illnesses — who can get quite sick if infected with the new variants, according to FOPH.
 
This is all the more important as the flu season is about to begin in Switzerland as well, and the confluence of both illnesses, plus other respiratory viruses that typically circulate during the winter, can be very risky.
 
What can you do to protect yourself?
 
Other than adopting the same protective measures as those during the pandemic — that is, washing hands, avoiding close contacts and crowded spaces, and wearing masks where needed — health officials also recommend top-up shots, for both Covid and flu.

READ ALSO: Who should get top-up Covid and flu jabs in Switzerland?

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