Festivals & events
Cully Jazz Festival
- Type
- Jazz festival
- Address
- Cully, Lavaux
Not open to visitors
The Cully Jazz Festival is the great spring jazz gathering of French-speaking Switzerland. Every year, between late March and early April, the winegrowing village of Cully, on the shore of Lake Geneva at the heart of the UNESCO-listed Lavaux, vibrates for eight days to jazz, R’n’B, soul and world music. Founded in 1983, it now draws some 65,000 people to around forty concerts, between the big stages of the Festival IN and the constellation of free cellars of the Festival OFF.
The Cully Jazz Festival, the spring of jazz in Lavaux
Since 1983
The festival was born in 1983 from the friendship of two men, Emmanuel Gétaz and Daniel Thentz. First run as a simple partnership, it gave itself an association in 1997, and a foundation, the Fondation Lavaux-Cully-Jazz, as early as 1987, to support jazz in the district.
From 1983 to 1995 the main concerts were held in the Salle Davel, in the centre of the village. A fire destroyed it in November 1995; the organisers then raised a marquee on the Place d’Armes, by the lake. It turned out for the best: capacity rose from 400 to 600 and then 950 seats, and the festival took on new momentum.
The Festival IN and the Festival OFF
On its three stages — the Chapiteau, the Temple and the Next Step — the Festival IN has welcomed immense names: Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Gilberto Gil, Monty Alexander, but also Bobby McFerrin, Ahmad Jamal, Michel Petrucciani, Marcus Miller, Carla Bley, Jan Garbarek, Gregory Porter, Madeleine Peyroux, McCoy Tyner, Youssou N’Dour and Manu Dibango.
Launched in 1986, the Festival OFF is the other half of Cully’s heart: some fifteen free cellars and pop-up stages where the new generation of Swiss jazz emerges. It is this marriage of the IN’s headliners and the OFF’s discoveries that gives the festival its soul.
At the heart of Lavaux
It all unfolds in a winegrowing village listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. From the earliest years, the inhabitants and winegrowers of Cully opened their cellars to musicians and festival-goers, making Cully Jazz a feast of wine as much as of music. The festival lives thanks to more than six hundred volunteers and works, year after year, to reduce its ecological footprint.
The 43rd edition took place from 10 to 18 April 2026.
Related artists :Charles LloydWayne ShorterGilberto GilMonty AlexanderEmmanuel GétazIbrahim MaaloufLisa SimoneStephan Eicher