MONTREUX - The 59th Montreux Jazz Festival opened on Friday with the Lake Stage and the Casino as its rooms, the last full summer in this off-site form before a planned 2026 return to a rebuilt Convention Centre. Quays filled early. Extra trains from Lausanne did what they always do in July.
Hotels between Vevey and Villeneuve had been full since the programme drop. Residents complained about sound in the usual places and then went anyway.
A festival that invoices the shore
Security, toilets and the last train are the civic part. The music is the postcard. Both have to work or the town hears about it in August.