Montreux Jazz Festival

Poster designed by Keith Haring

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The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland. It is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Related Topics:
Festival - Switzerland - July - Montreux - Lake Geneva

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The first Montreux Jazz Festival was held in 1967; it lasted three days. The festival originally was a pure jazz festival, but it opened up in the 1970s and today presents artists of nearly every imaginable music style. Still, jazz remains an important part of the festival. Today's festival lasts about two weeks and attracts an audience of more than 200,000 people.

Related Topics:
1967 - Jazz - 1970s

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The Montreux Jazz Festival is undeniably one of the major European music festivals. The initiator and—as of 2004—still the head organizer, Claude Nobs, has managed to bring an amazing array of top-notch artists to Montreux, both established ones and newcomers. The roster of artists who have played at Montreux reads like a "Who's who" of the music scene (see, for example, http://www.montreuxjazz.com/2003/e/Media+Corner/Historique/default.htm).

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