by Martina Fuchs
MONTREUX, Switzerland, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Montreux Jazz Festival China, set to take place in the fall this year, is poised to become a vital cultural nexus between the East and West, said the festival's CEO.
The 57th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival with more than 500 concerts and activities is currently underway from June 30 to July 15 in the Swiss resort town nestled between steep hills, and Lavaux vineyard terraces, a UNESCO-listed world heritage site.
While the iconic festival is in full swing attracting around 250,000 music lovers from near and far to the shores of Lake Geneva in southwestern Switzerland, its China edition is gearing up for its second event.
The purpose and mission of the festival's China edition were much bigger than simply organizing music concerts, Joyce Peng Peng, CEO of the Montreux Jazz Festival China, told Xinhua on the sidelines of the prestigious summer event.
"Montreux Jazz Festival China will be the platform to connect East and West," she told Xinhua. "We will bring a lot of international musicians to China and we will also introduce Chinese musicians to the world. So we act like a bridge to connect China and the world."
In 2021, the Montreux Jazz Festival traveled to China for the first time in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hangzhou, the capital city of the Zhejiang province, on the theme of "Where East Meets West."
This year's edition will be held on the theme of "Revival" at the Suzhou Fairmont Hotel Yangcheng Lake, Jiangsu Province, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2.
"We're going to have four stages, almost 40 concerts, and we will have international as well as Chinese musicians," she said.
"Apart from music, we will also have culture and art activities during the festival. We're going to introduce the Chinese artist who is also our poster designer this year to the audience," she added.
The CEO also announced plans to bring the music festival to more cities across China in the future.
"After the 2023 edition, we plan to discuss a potential expansion of the festival to additional cities in the Greater China area. Also, one of our dreams is to bring Chinese musicians to Montreux and to even have a China stage," she added.
The official line-up of artists will be revealed in the next couple of weeks, said the CEO. ■