Rock tops the bill at summer festivals

Music fans have a big choice of summer festivals this year Keystone

This year’s summer festival season places the emphasis once again firmly on rock and pop - with music legends sharing the stage with today’s stars.

Old hands Joe Cocker, Diana Ross and Brian Wilson will all be performing at Swiss venues, as will popular acts Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz and Seal, and relative newcomers Franz Ferdinand.

One of the main highlights of the open-air months is undoubtedly the 39th Montreux Jazz Festival on the shores of Lake Geneva. But as usual there is far more than just jazz on offer.

Ex-Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, former Beach Boys vocalist Brian Wilson and singer-songwriter Elvis Costello are just some of the mainstream names scheduled to appear at the two-week event, which starts on July 1.

Shock rocker Alice Cooper will be turning up the tempo, while those in search of something quieter can head to the Casino Barrière, where something more akin to jazz will be provided by the likes of Tori Amos and Lisa Stansfield.

Festival spokeswoman Dominique Saudan said that the festival always tried to provide an eclectic mix of music.

“The audience is made up of people of different ages so you should be able to offer people what they like,” she told swissinfo.

“Maybe the audience will be a bit older when you have the legends playing on the main stage, and in the Miles Davis Hall you’ll have the young kids dancing to electromusic,” said Saudan.

“Decidedly youthful”

Also on Lake Geneva, the Paléo Festival in Nyon, which starts on July 19, boasts a “decidedly youthful” line-up this year. More than 80 per cent of the bands appearing will be at the festival for the first time.

“We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year but we didn’t want to have artists from 20 or 15 years ago but rather artists from the modern music scene,” said festival spokesman Philippe Duvanel.

“So our programme is a lot more focused on talents and headline acts who are a bit younger than our usual acts,” he told swissinfo.

Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, whose debut album caused a sensation last year, will be making their only stopover in Switzerland at Paléo. Also appearing are Jamiroquai and Lenny Kravitz.

A few veterans will still be on hand – among them 85-year-old Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar, famous for inspiring the Beatles, and funk musician George Clinton.

French songs will feature, as will world music – with a whole stage being devoted to Asia.

Visitors can expect an array of entertainments including whirling dervishes from Syria, Bollywood-inspired Indian pop music and sacred dancing from Tibet.

Star-studded

Another open-air event with a star-studded programme is Locarno’s Moon and Stars, which starts on July 9. Seal will be performing, as will Coldplay and rock legend Joe Cocker.

Cocker is quite busy in Switzerland this year. Apart from appearances at Montreux, Moon and Stars and the Open Air in Gampel in canton Valais, he will be playing alongside Diana Ross, George Benson and Meatloaf at Live at Sunset in Zurich.

In all, there are more than 160 open-air events – pop, rock and classical – between June and September in Switzerland this year.

Music festivals have been mushrooming in recent years and 2005 is no exception with the launch of the Greenfield festival in Interlaken, in the Bernese Oberland.

Meanwhile other open-air festivals are ramping up their offer, like St Gallen, Frauenfeld and the Gurten festival in the capital, Bern.

Unruffled

But these developments do not worry the organisers at Paléo, billed as one of Europe’s largest music festivals.

“Paléo is the only Swiss festival which has such a huge range of styles: rock, French music, world music, but also classical music, street theatre, reggae. It’s what makes the festival special,” said spokesman Philippe Duvanel.

There are two main reasons why the Montreux Jazz Festival is streets ahead of any of its rivals, according to spokeswoman Saudan. The fact that many concerts are indoors – ensuring that there is good sound and no disruption caused by the weather – and because more than 80 per cent of the festival acts are free.

But both organisers were at a loss to explain just why there are so many summer festivals in Switzerland.

“I guess people like it and there is the demand – otherwise they wouldn’t happen,” said Saudan.

swissinfo, Isobel Leybold-Johnson

Key facts

Zurich Festival: June 17-July 10.
Frauenfeld Open Air: June 17-19.
Montreux Jazz Festival: July 1-16.
Open Air St Gallen: July 1-3.
Lugano Estival Jazz: July 1-9.
Moon and Stars ’05: July 9-16 .
Live at Sunset Zurich: July 14-24.
Gurten festival in Bern: July 14-17.
Menuhin Festival Gstaad: July 16-September 3.
Paléo Festival, Nyon: July 19-24.
Open Air Gampel: August 18-21.