Concerts, opera, open air cinema, theatre, dance, unusual walking routes, shows for kids: for over 30 years, the City of Lausanne has offered its residents and visitors many shows and festive and cultural events. There are no fewer than 400 entirely free events to make the most of the Lausanne summer.
A thousand musicians, a hundred concerts, dozens of stages: in celebration of the summer solstice, all types of music pour through the city streets and squares. The music festival also echoes through the Cathedral, in churches, in concert halls, and in clubs!
Harmonies and rhythms of all kinds resonate late into the shortest night of the year, and many artists then try their hand onstage.
With summer comes one of the most popular and most friendly get-togethers in Lausanne: the Festival de la Cité. Free since its creation in 1972, it now brings together more than 200 shows in a dozen locations near the cathedral.
Classical music, poetry, theatre (for young and old), song, contemporary jazz, rock, street arts, contemporary dance, comedy, and cinema: an unparalleled abundance in the name of discovery and coming together.
Each summer, ten violin-piano duos from around the world participate in master classes under Pierre Amoyal (violin) and Bruno Canino (piano).
At the Conservatory, a masters’ concert ushers in this week of teaching. The public is invited to attend these outstanding performance lessons, which conclude with the Academy’s concert, during which seven duos perform a movement from a sonata they have worked on during the courses, and the laureates’ concert, during which the three best duos perform a sonata.
Each summer, the For Noise Festival takes place in the Pully heights.
The name of the event gives you an idea of the decibels involved and the screaming metal on offer. However, this isn’t the whole truth. Over three nights, the festival’s three stages buzz with today’s alternative music, while the movie room explores the creative dialogues that go on between DJs and VJs.
Today, musical improvisation is inevitably associated with jazz and the performance of classical music. But each summer for the past decade, a Lausanne festival has been reminding us that, 100 or 200 years ago, improvisation also ruled in this area.
Concerts (at the Conservatory and in various churches) and courses bring this pleasant music back into fashion, with musicians sometimes calling upon their listeners to suggest challenges or themes!
Jazz en Ville is changing its name and formula. Creations, improvisations, jam sessions: for four days, the 2.21 moves to the rhythms of contemporary jazz and the sounds of electro music.
This year, Swiss and foreign musicians are bringing their talents together for a cultural celebration of international sounds and colours.
Rencontres internationales harmoniques of Lausanne
This event, which takes place every two years, turns back time to discover the lost and understated sounds of the clavichord, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments, which were popular among the contemporaries of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Chopin.
Rencontres Internationales Harmoniques is aimed at both professionals (instrument makers throughout Europe, musicologists, students, musicians and museum curators) and the general public, and it includes exhibitions, round tables and conferences at the Musée Historique and the Lausanne Conservatory.
In five years, BD-FIL has already established itself by drawing in more and more visitors every year. Organized in a city whose library houses 40,000 comic strips – one of the most important collections in Europe – this festival offers a vast array of exhibitions, activities, free concerts, debates, master classes and a fanzine area… to name but a few! A weekend of exciting events involving the “9th art”, in the heart of the city.
