Montreux Jazz Festival

We went to the Montreux Jazz Festival today, which is the best-known music festival in Switzerland. It is held annually every July in Montreux along the shores of Lake Geneva. We had thought about buying tickets online beforehand. But we procrastinated (of course) and the tickets for Sheryl Crow -- who was the headliner that night -- sold out. There were many other performances going on, some of which were free, so we decided to head to Montreux anyway to check it out.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. We enjoyed gorgeous views of Lake Geneva and the surrounding region as we approached Montreux on the train. From the station, we just followed the sound of music until we arrived at Parc Vernex where there was an outdoor stage with a Big Band playing cover tunes. We spread our blanket out on the lawn and relaxed in the sun for a little bit. We noticed in the program that a "Jazz Boat" was scheduled to depart at 3PM, which sounded like fun, but we had to hurry if we were going to make it. We also had to deal with the issue of how to get tickets. As we impatiently pushed our way through the meandering crowds along the lake shore drive, we couldn't help but smell the aroma of flavors from all the food stalls. My mouth began to water. But we didn't have time to stop.

We arrived at the pier and were immediately put off by the large crowd of people pushing and shoving each, jostling for position to get on the boat. It was getting hot, and my mind turned wistfully back to all those food stalls. But just then a scalper approached and offered two tickets at a discount. Alarm bells were going off in my head. But we forked over the cash, grabbed the tickets, and pushed our way onto the boat. Fortunately, the tickets were valid. In hindsight, I am so glad we didn't turn around on the pier because the 3 hour boat tour on Lake Geneva was incredible. The scenery was spectacular, of course. But it was also some of the best live Blues and Jazz music I've ever heard -- on par with anything I've experienced in New Orleans, New York, or St. Louis (maybe better). I nearly filled up the memory card on our camera taking videos!

After the boat arrived back in Montreux, we ordered paella from one of those food stalls and then we made our way back to Parc Vernex, where we listened to cool band from Senegal named Les Freres Sambe. It was getting late, so we started to walk back to the train station. On our way, we ran back into the scalper who sold us tickets to the Jazz Boat. I think he was following us! He just happened to have two extra tickets to Sheryl Crow.... :)  

Here are some pictures from throughout the day.