Raye, Smashing Pumpkins, Tems and Duran Duran Set for 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival

Raye, Sting, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, Janelle Monáe, and Duran Duran lead the lineup for the 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival, set for July 5 – 20 on the Lake Geneva shoreline.

Organizers roll out the changes for this year’s 58th edition, including a fresh layout with a new main stage erected on top of the famous Swiss lake, and a return to the historic Casino, the setting of the classic Pink Floyd concert from 1970, and which was later razed and inspired Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”.

Deep Purple will return to perform on the lake this year, joining a lineup that includes PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Jungle, André 3000, Air, Tems, Tyla and many others.

After a triumphant night at the 2024 Brit Awards, where she scooped a record six trophies, Raye will perform on the Lake Stage, doing so the same night as Janelle Monáe.

More than 40 years after forming in Birmingham, England, Rock Hall-inducted pop-rock legends Duran Duran will make their Montreux Jazz Festival debut this year, off the back of the Halloween-influenced 16th studio album Danse Macabre, which opened at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Chart in November 2023, for their 12th top 10 appearance.

Established in 1967 by late jazz connoisseur Claude Nobs, the festival has hosted many of the greats of contemporary music, from Prince to David Bowie, Nina Simone, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Elton John and others. Mathieu Jaton has directed the fest since 2013, the year Nobs passed away.

Nearly 250,000 spectators attend the event in a regular year, which continues to evolve and introduce audiences to styles and tunes well outside the broad world that is jazz, with a bill that also takes in pop, hip-hop, Afrobeats, trip-hop, classic rock, soul and funk.

The event paused in 2020 due to pandemic, returned in 2021 with a downsized format, and was back to its regular programming in 2022.

The general ticket onsale starts Friday, April 19 at montreuxjazzfestival.com.

Lars Brandle

Billboard