(CelebrityAccess) — For the first time in its 53-year history, the iconic Montreux Jazz Festival has been canceled due to extended prohibitions on public gatherings to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival, which was scheduled for July 3-18, will return in 2021 from July 2-17.
Festival organizers are currently trying to reconfigure some of the previously announced concerts, including Lionel Richie and Brittany Howard on 8 July 2020, and Lenny Kravitz and Black Pumas on July 13th, to take place in 2021.
In a statement, festival organizers wrote:
It is with deep regret that the organizers of the Montreux Jazz Festival must today announce that this year’s event, which was set to be held from 3 to 18 July 2020, will not take place. The program planned for this summer will be partly carried over to next year’s Festival, which will take place from 2 to 17 July 2021.
This Thursday 16 April, the Swiss Federal Council announced that it would be gradually easing some of the protective measures against the coronavirus, but keeping the majority of the necessary hygiene and social distancing measures in place. As such, it is now impossible for us to consider holding an event on the scale of Montreux Jazz Festival in July, just as it is for our fellow organizers of other summer festivals in Switzerland and around the world. Public health concerns naturally take precedence over all other considerations.
This is the first time the Festival has had to be canceled in its 53 years of making history, bringing people together and producing legendary musical moments. Until the very end, all of us here in the Festival team were still hoping to share these magical moments with everyone who, like us, cannot imagine a summer without the Montreux Jazz Festival. Our thoughts go out to the staff members, artists and their support teams, technicians and engineers and to all our partners who make the event possible, from local hotels and businesses to everyone who lives in Montreux, and of course our loyal festival-goers.
