The Montreux Jazz Festival is certainly
the most well known music festival in the whole world.

Founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, a passionate jazz fan and a visionary, it lasted for three days only at his first edition and featured almost exclusively jazz artists. In the 1970s, the festival began broadening its scope, including blues, soul, and rock artists. In December 1971, the Montreux Casino burned down and the festival was forced to move to the Convention Center until the new Casino was built in 1975. Over the years it has really become an unmissable event for music fans around the world. Jazz music may have constituted the Festival’s historic roots, but other musical styles quickly found their place within the festival, sharing a common bond of musical curiosity and mutual enthusiasm. Distinguishing itself by its ambitious programming choices, the Montreux Jazz Festival offers an ideal platform for musicians in an intimate setting including music from all continents (with an emphasis on Brazilian music) and lasting a full three weeks.

The best artists played during the festival including Miles Davis, Weather Report, Santana, David Bowie, Brian May, Yes, Bob Dylan, Deep Purple, Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Max Roach, James Brown, Art Blakey, John McLaughlin, but also Mike Oldfield, Marvin Gaye, Phil Collins, Joe Cocker, Tracy Chapman, Bo Diddley, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name only a few.

The festival continued to grow. From 1995 through 2006, it occupied both the Miles Davis Hall and the Auditorium Stravinski and the Casino as well. The number of visitors rose from 75,000 in 1980 to around 220,000 now-a-days !