Montreux Jazz Festival continues international expansion with 2021 China festival

29 October 2020 - Press release

- New festival to take place in Hangzhou, east China, on the city’s UNESCO protected West Lake in October 2021
- Four editions to take place in 2021: Rio, Montreux, Tokyo, and Hangzhou
- Montreux Jazz Festival celebrates success of second edition of Rio festival with 130,000 online viewers

Montreux Jazz Festival has today announced its latest international expansion with the Montreux Jazz Festival China, due to take place in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, from 5 to 8 October 2021.

The new festival will host an eclectic programme exploring “When West Meets East”, combining Chinese and Asian music and, of course, jazz, which has been enjoying a new lease of life in the country in recent years. This latest partnership continues Montreux Jazz Festival's long-term efforts to forge links with other continents and mix different musical cultures.

2021 will hopefully see a total of four editions of the world famous festival: Rio, at the end of spring, the original in Montreux (2 to 17 July), Tokyo in the autumn, and, finally,  Hangzhou, running from 5 to 8 October 2021

Hangzhou will be the perfect destination, sharing many similarities with the original festival: a lakeside town and tourist destination, it is situated on the shores of the West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The balance between heritage and innovation is at the heart of the values shared by the festival and Hangzhou. The city combines a thousand-year-old culture with meteoric digital development, home to many companies engaged in digital transformation.

Commenting on the new festival Ted Lo, Musical Director of the Montreux Jazz Festival China, said “The Montreux Jazz Festival is a legendary event, revered by music lovers from all over the world. I played there for the first time in 1982 and today, 40 years later, I have the honour of being the musical director of the Festival in China.”  

“We are delighted to welcome Hangzhou and the passionate team of Montreux Jazz Festival China into the great Montreux Jazz Festival family,” added CEO of the Montreux Jazz Festival Mathieu Jaton. “After Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, we are pursuing our journey of mutual cultural and musical exchange, values which have always been dear to the Montreux Jazz Festival.”

The announcement of this exciting new partnership follows the recent success of another of the festival’s thriving new editions: Montreux Jazz Festival Rio, which ran as a digital festival from 23 to 25 October. A heady mix of bossa, jazz and soul with performances from stars like Roberto Menescal, Marcos Valle and Macy Gray, 23 concerts were streamed for free and were viewed by more than 130,000 spectators in 24 countries. The decision to maintain the event in this format enabled 250 musicians to take part and generated 1,200 direct and indirect jobs.
 
“This digital edition made it possible to appeal to the different professionals in our sector and bring a little joy to the carioca public. All of this has subsequently gained momentum, as the event is hosted in Rio de Janeiro, but the concerts have been viewed all over the world,” said Marco Mazzola, Artistic Director of the Montreux Jazz Festival Rio.