Carlos Santana & Ricky Martin To Headline Montreux Jazz Festival

By Michael Lopez

As if there weren’t enough reasons to visit Europe this summer. Now you have the chance to see Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin, Sting and dozens of other headliners jam live at the 45th annual Montreux Jazz Festival. Held in Switzerland, Montreux is considered to be one of the most prestigious live events in all of Europe and regularly attracts over 250,000 attendees.

Carlos is a Montreux mainstay and has been playing the event since 1970. Obviously it comes as no surprise that Santana has been chosen to kick off the celebration on July 1, accompanied by British blues legend John McLaughlin. Any guitar fan would be hard pressed to find a better electric duo than these two.

But that is only the beginning. Montreux is not your typical weekend festival. This one goes on for over two weeks and is dedicating specific nights to different musical themes. Ricky will be putting his “La Vida Loca” moves to work on July 6.

Other highlights include Arcade Fire on July 10, Seal on July 12, and an already sold-out night with Sting and his full orchestra on July 11. Even classic hip-hop has found its way onto the schedule, with a night devoted to Coolio, Naughty by Nature, Digital Underground and House of Pain.

Though the entire event sounds incredible, a ticket to Switzerland may be hard to come by in these tough economic times. So if you can’t make it, don’t worry. Live albums and YouTube recordings have been a Montreaux tradition for years and we imagine there will be plenty of them floating around late July.

Would you fly to Switzerland to see the Montreaux Jazz Festival? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags Arcade Fire, Carlos Santana, Europe, Hot Stuff, Música, Montreux Jazz Festival, Ricky Martin, Seal, Sting, Switzerland