The Festival’s portrait

Cully Jazz Festival is the main musical event of spring in French-speaking Switzerland. Over nine days, more than 150 concerts and twenty events dedicated to jazz and its associated genres will electrify the village of Cully. While 60’000 people explored the alleys, the wine-cellars and the lakeside of Cully during the Festival in 2019, a reduced summer edition was proposed in 2021, from 20 to 29 August, welcoming 12’000 festivalgoers.
The 39th edition will take place from 1 to 9 April 2022.

Since almost 40 years, Cully Jazz Festival has remained faithful to the values ​​that underlie its success: the quality of its musical programming, the commitment of volunteers, and the loyalty of festival-goers thanks to a wonderful natural setting and a warm welcome. Curious and enthusiastic, festival-goers respond every year to the call of artists and organisers.

2021 Summer Edition

The organisation has decided to reshape the Festival to the virus and to the health measures. In 2021 the Cully Jazz Festival has been rescheduled from the 20th to 29th August, thus creating the Summer Edition.

Fully redesigned, the Summer Edition has been smaller; fewer stages, reduced staff while exploiting the already existing structures. These necessary measures allow the Summer Edition to take place given the remaining uncertainties surrounding the pandemic.

The IN Festival took place on two stages only: The Next Step and the Temple. The OFF Festival was spread out in three open air stages: one on the lake shore and two other in surprising private gardens in the village of Cully.

Jazz in all its forms

Every year, jazz is celebrated in the village of Cully, with prestigious concerts attracting substantial crowds. Festival-goers wishing to enjoy the unique atmosphere of the place wander as they please in a constellation of wine-cellars constituting the scene for the OFF Festival. It is undoubtedly this combination between paying and free concerts in the IN and OFF Festivals respectively that seduces a dedicated audience.

The OFF Festival, spanning fifteen cafés, ephemeral scenes and wine-cellars scattered throughout the village, is in itself a springboard for the new generation of jazz in Switzerland.

On its three stages – Chapiteau, Next Step and Temple – the IN Festival can pride itself on having welcomed prestigious artists such as Bobby Mc Ferrin, Wayne Shorter, Gilberto Gil, McCoy Tyner, Stephan Eicher, Madeleine Peyroux, Marianne Faithfull, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Charles Lloyd, Ibrahim Maalouf, Jan Garbarek, Carla Bley, Marcus Miller, Manu Dibango, Thomas Dutronc, Michel Petrucciani, Manu Katché, John Scofield, Ahmad Jamal, Randy Weston, Seun Kuti, Monty Alexander, Gregory Porter, Avishai Cohen and Lisa Simone.

The OFF Festival consists of around fifteen cafés and wine cellars spread throughout the village. It provides a springboard for many young Swiss Jazz musicians; artists playing in the OFF Festival often find themselves on the line-up for the IN Festival a couple of years later. However, sometimes the opposite happens, and an artist having played at the IN decides to come back to Cully for a residency during the OFF.

A Festival in the heart of Lavaux

Located on the shores of Lake Geneva, in the heart of Lavaux – a UNESCO World Heritage Site –  Cully is a wine-producing village with a unique charm. Every spring, its inhabitants open their doors, their wine-cellars and sometimes even their living-rooms to welcome musicians in order to share uniquely convivial moments.Lovers of quality music, elegant wines and conviviality will feel at home in a festival humming with energy thanks to the generosity of Cully’s inhabitants.

The festival would not exist without the force of its volunteers supporting it. Led by an association of passionate people, the organising team is composed of a permanent office of two to eight people during the year and a dozen volunteer members. During the nine days of the festival, this permanent team is supported by 700 volunteers spread across all sectors of the organisation.

Sustainable development

Conscious of its impact on the environment, Cully Jazz Festival strives to reduce its ecological footprint and preserve the magnificent setting it is hosted in. Every year, the Sustainable Development Commission sets new goals aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the Festival. In particular, it was responsible for the introduction of refundable fees for cups and dishes, for the use of primarily renewable and locally-produced electricity, as well as for the constant improvement of the public transport network to and from the Festival.

Mission

The main mission of the Festival is to promote jazz and its artists through a high quality event open to all audiences. Cully looks to the future in its promotion of jazz, and quality, accessibility, and exploration are the main characteristics that we wish to promote. Showcasing the Lavaux area and its extraordinary heritage is one of the Festival’s key values.

The Festival in numbers

Overview

39th edition in 2022

60’000 spectators in 2019

CHF 2.4 million of budget

19% of Swiss artists in 2020 (Festival IN)

13’133 tickets sold in 2019

724 volunteers

8 paid staff (4 of whom work year round), representing 3.6 full time posts for the 2019 edition

 

2022 IN Festival

38 ticketed concerts dispatched between 3 stages

  • Chapiteau
    seating capacity 900, standing capacity 1’400
  • Next Step
    seating capacity 280, standing capacity 500
  • Temple
    seating capacity 240

 

2022 OFF Festival

  • more than 100 free concerts
  • 16 cafés and wine cellars

 

2021 Overview

12’000 spectators during

7 days of Festival in 2021

CHF 641’200 of budget in 2021

98% of Swiss artists in 2021 (Festival IN + OFF)

2’500 tickets sold in 2021

140 volunteers

3 paid staff representing 2 full time posts for 2021

 

2021 IN Festival

12 ticketed concerts dispatched between 2 stages

  • Next Step
    280 seating capacity
  • Temple
    240 seating capacity

2021 OFF Festival

40 free concerts in

  • 3 caveaux
  • 3 open air stages

 

Connectivity

Figures as at 1st October 2021

69’329 visits to the website between July and September 2021

262’243 pages view on the website

51’946 subscribers to the newsletter

20.8K Facebook Fans

9.21K Instagram followers

8.48K Twitter followers

 

About wine

15’892 bottles of wine in 2019

45 winemakers from the Lavaux are represented in the Festival’s drink selection

1 partnership with the label Terravin

 

Environmentally-friendly actions

Refundable and reusable cups have been in use since 2009, refundable crockery since 2014

60% of all festivalgoers used public transportation, cycled or walked to the festival in 2019

80% of all waste was recycled

92% green energy

During the Festival, logistics are entirely run by bike