There are bigger blues festivals. There are louder ones, more corporate ones, ones with larger stages and longer queues. But few combine a genuinely serious line-up with a setting this extraordinary. Megève Blues Festival — tucked into a mountain village in the French Alps — has quietly built a reputation as one of Europe’s most worth-the-journey blues events, and the 2026 edition makes the strongest case yet for getting on a plane.
The festival runs across three evenings: Friday 31 July, Saturday 1 August, and Sunday 2 August, at the Pré Saint-Amour outdoor venue in Megève, Haute-Savoie. Founded in 2014 by the late Stéphane Huget, it outgrew its original home on the village’s Place de l’Église and has since relocated to a green open-air site that frames the stage against the village itself. It still feels like a community event. It just happens to book artists who could fill rooms ten times the size.
The Bill
The weekend opens on Friday with Troy Redfern, Matt Pascale & The Stomps, and Lovesick — a night pitched at the grittier, guitar-forward end of the spectrum before the weekend’s bigger draws arrive.
Saturday belongs to Ally Venable and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Venable has been picking up serious attention on the blues circuit for the quality of her playing and the maturity of her songwriting — she is one of the more compelling younger voices in the genre. Shepherd, meanwhile, is a known quantity: a guitarist who has spent three decades making blues that is hard, road-tested, and never less than fully committed live.
Sunday closes the festival with Bette Smith, Nikki Hill, and Coco Montoya. Three headliners in their own right. Smith and Hill both draw on soul and gospel as much as blues proper, bringing a rawness that suits an outdoor setting well. Montoya — a guitarist who spent years working alongside Albert Collins and John Mayall before establishing his own considerable solo career — is the kind of closer that rewards anyone who stays until the end.
Beyond the Main Stage
The festival’s Scène Village, back on the Place de l’Église, hosts free afternoon concerts both Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 5pm. These “Tremplins” sessions showcase local and regional acts and keep the village square alive throughout the weekend. For anyone who has arrived early or wants to decompress between evenings, they are worth catching.
Tickets and Practicalities
Day tickets start at €15 for Friday and €45 for each of the weekend nights. A three-day pass is available from €75. Megève is roughly an hour from Geneva Airport by road. The festival website has travel and accommodation guidance, including local chalets and a nearby Novotel, at megevebluesfestival.com.
This is the kind of festival that justifies the journey before the first note is played. The 2026 line-up means the music will more than match it.
Full programme and tickets: megevebluesfestival.com
