After drooling over MTV’s broadcast of the Montreux pop festival for a couple years, I actually made it there in May 1988, as a birthday present from my dad. (It was in Switzerland, and I was living in England at the time, so it wasn’t really a huge trek.) I went with two friends, and we spent our days — when not seeing bands — hauling the way-too-much stuff we’d packed, trying to find a cheap hotel, and scraping up enough money to get “le big mac” we could all split.
In my opinion, ’88 was one of the last good years the festival had, at least in terms of rock and pop bands — see the schedule here! Now the city is known mainly for its jazz festival.
For the press pass I had to buy…
