Venues & stages

Débarcadère de Montreux

Type: CGN landing stage / floating venue
Address: Quai du Casino, débarcadère CGN, Montreux

The Montreux landing stage is not a concert hall: it is a point of embarkation. The CGN’s Belle Époque boats depart from this pontoon. Two musical episodes are attached to it, but neither took place on the quay: both happened on board.

The landing stage, or music that set out on the lake

The CGN’s Belle Époque fleet

From this pontoon the paddle steamers of the Compagnie générale de navigation (CGN) leave for Chillon, Lausanne or the Savoy shore. Its eight Belle Époque vessels form the largest fleet of their kind on Europe’s lakes; they are listed as historic monuments.

The CGN steamer “Italie” today, on Lake Geneva.© Visit Montreux

10 May 1986: Queen’s reception aboard the “Italie”

On 10 May 1986, Queen were in Montreux for the third edition of the Golden Rose Pop Festival. The band’s manager, Jim Beach, chartered the “Italie”, a boat dating from 1908, and held a press reception there named after the song of the moment, “It’s A Kind Of Magic”.

Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Freddie Mercury received guests on board, among them Mark O’Toole of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Belouis Some.

Performers from the Hungaria cabaret, then between the La Bavaria restaurant and Mountain Studios, had been hired to mingle with the journalists posing as fans, before undressing at the agreed moment: the next day, the international press reported that “incident” rather than the rest of the reception. The anecdote is recounted by Vicky Vocat, who witnessed it.