Live Winter 2026 - Web

here are your bog-standard anniversaries, and then there are those anniversaries that offer an opportunity to look at an entire industry through the lens of a single relationship. In 2026, the Montreux Jazz Festival celebrated one such occasion, for its 60th edition – while simultaneously Meyer Sound also marked 40 its capacity, and so it’s always been very restricted on whether you can fly subs in there. You simply can’t; there isn’t the weight capacity,” Davies says. “Having something like TIGRA as a step up from the older PA that was in there really added more low end to the array, added more control to the room, and you could really hear the difference with the latest generation of product, particularly at the back of the room. It added more weight.” T BIG years as its Global Official Sound Partner. The Montreux of 2026 is worlds apart from its original 1967 set-up of an intimate jazz gathering. Though its history is inseparable from its setting on the idyllic shores of Lake Geneva, its reputation has shifted from one genre to a mosaic of music styles and artistry. Under founder Claude Nobs, across its 40 year tenure, the festival developed drastically into said mosaic. Jazz remains central to its heritage, but the programme now encompasses an expansive spectrum of styles – from rock and soul to electronic music and contemporary pop. From the likes of ‘it girl’ of 2026 Zara Larsson to iconic hip-hop band The Roots, its stages have hosted established icons and emerging artists alike. “Our relationship with Montreux goes back 40 editions now, and we’ve always used it as a springboard for bringing the latest and greatest,” introduces Andy Davies, senior director of product management at Meyer Sound. “A key part of the original relationship with John and Helen Meyer and Claude Nobs back in the day was not just elevating the festival but also elevating what was possible in the whole industry.” To begin with, the festival was a single-venue event held in a casino. Now it encompasses a sprawling lakeside programme, with numerous official stages, clubs, bars, hospitality spaces and activations. This year’s festival welcomed more than 250,000 concertgoers between 3 and 18 July, with more than 700 performances and events spanning the turquoise waterfront. The newly refurbished Montreux Music & Convention Centre provided the setting for the festival’s flagship venues: the 4000-capacity Auditorium Stravinski and the 2000-capacity Montreux Jazz Lab. Across the site, more than 700 Meyer Sound loudspeakers served 12 official stages and additional spaces, with Swiss rental company Skynight supplying and integrating the systems. “It’s always been a case of bringing the greatest that we could to make the festival as good as it could possibly be,” Davies explains. “For us, that’s always new systems, new software, new ways of doing things.” DIFFERENT SHAPES AND SIZES This year’s most significant technological introduction was TIGRA, Meyer Sound’s new line array, making its Montreux debut following its global festival premiere at Roskilde earlier in the summer. At the Jazz Lab, TIGRA represented a particularly meaningful step forward. “The Jazz Lab is quite a low room for

DRAW The festival attracted more then 250,000 fans and featured more than 700 shows, including one by Lewis Capaldi