No extra sausage is too unusual for her! Michaela Maiterth (56) is the good soul of the famous Jazz Festival on Lake Geneva.

For 26 years, the program manager has also taken care of the wishes of her stars - as reliably as Swiss clockwork. Now, on the 50th anniversary of the festival, she opens up - and tells the best anecdotes she has experienced with the musicians.

"I had to get a hood dryer for James Brown," she says with a grin. "I rattled off a few hairdressing stores to do that." And finally, the "Godfather of Soul" stood on stage happy and with freshly put-in hair.

Maiterth became nervous shortly before Kid Rock's (45) concert in 2006, when the star had to go to the police station because of a fight. "I called the judge directly," says the program manager. "He calmed me down and said that Kid Rock had only been questioned as a witness. The concert could go ahead."

The good soul of the Montreux Jazz Festival

Maiterth also had to act quickly in 2009 when the recently deceased musician Prince († 57) honored the festival. "Shortly before the plane landed, his road manager called me and urgently asked me for an iron," she explains. "Prince always asked his people to wear elegant clothes. And the manager didn't dare to look Prince in the eye in a crumpled suit."

The good soul of Montreux couldn't wish for any other job in the world. And the long-time right-hand man of festival founder Claude Nobs († 76) is once again bringing big names to Lake Geneva this year. Among them Muse, ZZ Top, Deep Purple and many more.

MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL
30.06.-16.07.16, Montreux
TICKETS