Montreux Jazz Festival Franschhoek

Let me be honest with you.

When I first heard that the Montreux Jazz Festival was coming to Franschhoek, I stopped scrolling. Put my phone down. Picked it up again to make sure I’d read it right.

Because this isn’t a small thing. This is one of the most significant cultural moments South Africa has seen in years and it’s happening not in a stadium in Johannesburg or on a beachfront in Cape Town, but in a valley in the Western Cape where the mountains meet the vineyards and the air smells like something a poet would struggle to describe.

From 27 to 29 March 2026, the Montreux Jazz Festival lands in Franschhoek for the first time in its nearly 60-year history. Since its inception in 1967, the festival has been a cultural cornerstone in the global music industry, celebrated for its diverse musical line-up spanning jazz, blues, pop and rock.Its stages have hosted Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Prince, BB King, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash. For almost 60 years, the legendary event has brought its unparalleled atmosphere to cities around the globe — from Miami, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

Now it’s our turn. Franschhoek proudly joins this prestigious list, marking a monumental moment as the festival’s first-ever African venue.

Let that sit for a second.

Why Franschhoek?

Of all the places on the continent, it had to be the valley. And honestly, the more you think about it, the more it makes perfect sense.

Festival organisers visited South Africa in January, scouting venues in Franschhoek, and confirmed the valley as the ideal location — celebrating the synergy and unique blend of stunning natural landscapes and warm hospitality that exists between Montreux and Franschhoek.

Because that’s exactly what Franschhoek is. It’s not just a destination — it’s a feeling. Cape Dutch architecture lining a single main street. Mountains on three sides. Wine estates that have been producing world-class bottles for centuries. Restaurants that belong on any list you care to name. It’s the kind of place that makes you slow down, whether you want to or not.

The festival is designed as a layered experience, with two stages connected by a walkable route known as the Montreux Mile, encouraging audiences to explore the village between performances.The main stage — The Arches — is set at the Huguenot Monument, framed by the mountains and the vineyards. The intimate stage, Jazz Village, is inside the historic NG Kerk church in the heart of the village.

Franschhoek doesn’t just host the festival. Franschhoek becomes the festival.

And on Sunday 29 March, the ticketed shows give way to the Sunday Slowdown, an unticketed day of music pop-up performances along the Montreux Mile on Huguenot Street, with public bars, food vendors, and a ‘wine down’ supported by some of the valley’s most notable vignerons. Free. In the street. With a glass of Franschhoek wine in hand. If that’s not a Broke & About moment, I don’t know what is.

The Line-Up: This Is Not a Local Festival Wearing a Foreign Name

When a festival of this stature comes to Africa for the first time, you watch the line-up carefully. Is it tokenistic? Is it a Swiss production that happens to be staged in the Winelands, with one or two South African names bolted on for the press release?

Not this one.

As festival music curator Lindsay Rhoda put it: “Conversations across generations and genres sit at the heart of this programme. It’s the same dialogue that has shaped Montreux for more than 60 years, now expressed through an African voice, on African soil.”

That shows up in the names.

Salif Keita headlines The Arches. Widely regarded as The Golden Voice of Africa, Keita is one of the most influential artists in African music history, with a career spanning more than five decades — a master artist whose presence embodies the festival’s belief in musical legacy, cultural truth and artistic courage. A pioneer of Afropop, his career has produced more than 20 albums and five Grammy nominations.For Montreux Jazz Festival Franschhoek, Salif will be accompanied by his Electric Band.This is a rare and serious booking.

Mandisi Dyantyis performs backed by a choir. One of South Africa’s most compelling contemporary composers and bandleaders, known for his deeply expressive trumpet work and genre-fluid compositions, Dyantyis represents the evolving language of African jazz today — sophisticated, emotive and unafraid to draw from classical, folk and modern influences.In October 2025, Mandisi released Intlambululo: Ukuhlambulula, which translates to the act of purification and reflection — and the response has exceeded all expectations.

Then there’s one of the most exciting bookings on the entire programme: The Kesivan amaBig Band Experience. Led by drummer and composer Kesivan Naidoo, who splits his time between Switzerland and South Africa, this is a 26-piece South African-European ensemble reimagining Amapiano through the language of a large acoustic jazz orchestra, featuring vocalists Boohle, Moonchild Sanelly and BONJ.An Amapiano-jazz fusion with a 26-piece band. In a valley surrounded by mountains. That’s the kind of thing you don’t just watch — you carry it with you.

Billy Monama’s Guitar Convergence is another one-of-a-kind moment. Bringing together Moss Mogale and Vusi Mahlasela, this collaboration is rooted in African storytelling, social memory and shared virtuosity — and it exists specifically for this festival, offering audiences a moment that cannot be replicated anywhere else.

In the Jazz Village, the intimate church stage brings some of the most special programming of the entire weekend. A rare collaboration between maskandi master Madala Kunene and Sibusile Xaba— two artists from completely different worlds of South African music, brought together under one roof in Franschhoek. There’s also Kwanti Leeh!, featuring Herbie Tsoaeli, Andile Yenana, Ayanda Sikade and Sisonke Xonti — the kind of ensemble that makes serious jazz lovers travel across provinces just to be in the room.

And then — on the international side — Robert Glasper with Bilal, Ezra Collective, Róisín Murphy, Wet Wet Wet, and our very own Thandiswa Mazwai. Different genres, different generations, different continents. All sharing the same Franschhoek sky.

The Curators of Sound: They Also Just Announced a Full DJ Line-Up

This is what separates MJFSA from the conversation entirely.

Montreux Jazz Festival Franschhoek has expanded its programme with 15 DJs, vinyl selectors and music curators set to perform at the inaugural African edition — combining live performances with curated DJ sets and vinyl listening sessions that celebrate the diversity of contemporary music culture.

Festival founder Mark Goedvolk called it “the natural thing to do” — because Montreux has always been about more than a single genre or format. It’s about the discovery of music in all its forms.

The Curators of Sound, that’s what they’re calling this collective:

DJ Zinhle - DJ Kent - CandyFlip - Charles Leonard - Kay Faith - Lelowhatsgood - Rosey Gold - DJ Kenzhero - That Guy S’bu - Trev The Japanese - DJ Mighty. - Homie.Lover.Friend - Nelee - Cassiem Latief & Leighton Moody

Together they represent a diverse cross-section of contemporary music culture spanning jazz, soul, house, hip-hop and rare groove — from broadcaster and vinyl connoisseur CandyFlip, to celebrated record collector Charles Leonard, to house music pioneer DJ Kent, to the award-winning DJ Zinhle.

The DJs will perform across multiple spaces during the festival weekend — intimate vinyl listening sessions in the Jazz Village, and high-energy sets at The Arches Stage alongside the live performances.

This isn’t a DJ set shoved in between the “real” acts. This is a fully curated strand of the programme, treated with the same seriousness as the live music. That’s a Montreux move — and it makes the weekend feel genuinely complete.

What This Means for Franschhoek

I want to say something about this beyond the music, because I think it matters.

Franschhoek has always punched above its weight. For a town that small, its global reputation — the wine, the food, the architecture, the hospitality — is extraordinary. But there’s a ceiling on how far a destination can go on vineyards and restaurants alone.

Hosting the Montreux Jazz Festival changes the conversation entirely. It positions the valley not just as a place you go to drink good wine, but as a place where global culture comes to happen. As the Western Cape’s Provincial Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport noted, festivals like this do more than entertain: they create jobs, grow local artistic skills, and showcase South Africa’s talent to the world.

Founder Mark Goedvolk has spoken about hosting the festival in Franschhoek as a unique opportunity to bridge cultural divides and create meaningful connections between emerging South African artists and the world’s top international artists and music industry leaders.

That’s not marketing language. That’s what actually happens when a festival like this lands somewhere — and this valley will feel it long after the stages come down.

Nedbank Presenting: Why This Partnership Matters

The festival is presented by Nedbank , and that sponsorship carries more weight than a logo on a banner.

Major cultural moments of this scale don’t materialise without institutional backing that believes in the long game. Nedbank’s involvement signals that this isn’t a one-weekend spectacle — it’s the beginning of something that could become a permanent fixture on the African cultural calendar, in the same way Montreux is a fixture in Switzerland.

Nedbank Private Banking clients have access to 30% off tickets through a limited exclusive window— a detail that tells you exactly how Nedbank is positioning this: as a premium, aspirational cultural experience aligned with its brand.

When a financial institution invests in culture at this level, it elevates the entire creative ecosystem. Artists get paid properly. The production is world-class. The experience feels like something you’d fly internationally for — not because it’s trying to look like Europe, but because it’s unashamedly, brilliantly African.

Why Broke & About Needs to Be in That Valley

Here’s where I have to be straight with you.

Broke & About is about finding the extraordinary in the accessible. It’s about showing people that South Africa is worth exploring, not just the obvious spots, but the moments, the atmospheres, the stories that only show up when you’re actually present.

The Montreux Jazz Festival Franschhoek is one of those stories.

It’s the first time in nearly 60 years this festival has left Switzerland to plant its flag on African soil. It’s happening in one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. It has a lineup that spans a Malian legend with five decades on stage, a jazz ensemble, a DJ collective of 15 of South Africa’s finest selectors, intimate church-stage collaborations that will never be repeated, and a free Sunday that turns the whole village into a living festival.

And it’s in Franschhoek — which means wine farms and world-class restaurants and mountain views and all the things that make the Winelands what it is, alive and electric for an entire weekend.

That is a story that deserves to be told. In full. With a camera, a microphone, and someone who genuinely loves this country’s culture.

We want to be there. From the drive into the valley to the last DJ set on Saturday night. From the wine tasting on the Thursday morning to the Sunday Slowdown on the street.

Not as press. Not as spectators.

As storytellers.

Because this is Africa’s moment and it should be documented like it.