The Festival’s portrait

The Cully Jazz Festival is the musical highlight of spring in French-speaking Switzerland. Over nine days the charming lakeside town of Cully is energized by the sounds of jazz and its musical cousins. Canceled in 2020, reduced in 2021, the Cully Jazz Festival returned to its full splendor in April 2022. Whether under the chapiteau or in an intimate wine cellar, the wide range of quality concerts of the 39th edition of the Cully Jazz delighted music lovers. The 40th edition will take place 14-22 April 2023 (with a break on Monday 17 April).

For forty years the Cully Jazz Festival has remained true to the values that made it such a success: a quality program, dedicated volunteers, and faithful public who repeatedly returns to enjoy Cully’s warm welcome and beautiful setting. Each year the ever-curious and enthusiastic public eagerly awaits the Festival’s program and its artists.

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.

The Village

A festival in the heart of Lavaux, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A Festival in the heart of a village cannot forget those who live there. Many measures have been undertaken to ensure minimal disruption to the residents of Cully. To limit waste, there is a deposit on dishes and utensils which ensures they are disposed of properly. At the end of the Festival there is a sweep of the entire area to collect any remaining garbage.

Moreover, the organizers and performers prioritize local shops and local procurement, not only during the Festival but also throughout the year.

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 600 volunteers spread across all sectors of the organisation.

Environmental Protection

Conscious of its impact on the environment, the Cully Jazz Festival tirelessly works to reduce its ecological footprint and preserve this magnificent site where the Festival takes place.

Every year new goals to reduce the impact on the environment are formulated, an effort that is recognized and appreciated by both cultural and political figures.

In the past ten years, actions taken to reduce the Festival’s footprint have included establishing a deposit system for cups & glasses, favoring the consumption of energy that is local and renewable, recycling, and prioritizing the use of public transport.

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

2023
40th edition
CHF 2.2 million of budget
39% of Swiss artists (Festival IN)
11 paid staff (64 of whom work year round), representing 4.15 full time posts

2022
48’000 spectators
12’500 tickets sold
617 volunteers

2019
60’000 spectators

2023 IN Festival

35 ticketed concerts dispatched between 3 stages

  • Chapiteau
    seating capacity 950,
    standing capacity 1’400
  • Next Step
    seating capacity 260,
    standing capacity 480
  • Temple
    seating capacity 270

2023 OFF Festival

  • 85 free concerts
  • 14 ephemeral scenes and wine cellars

Connectivity

Figures as at 1st July 2022

161’646 visits to the website between January and April 2022

501’181 pages view on the website

57’851 subscribers to the newsletter

21.3K Facebook Fans

10.9K Instagram followers

8.5K Twitter followers

About wine

11’783 bottles of wine

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

1 partnership with the label Terravin

Environmentally-friendly actions

100% Refundable and reusable cups have been in use since 2009, refundable crockery since 2014 (cutlery included)

80% of all waste was recycled

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

92% green energy

During the Festival, logistics are entirely run by bike