AVO SESSION Basel – History
The AVO SESSION Basel is a Swiss lifestyle-music festival with an international presence. It takes place in Basel, Switzerland every year in autumn (October/November). Both international stars and Swiss artists, many of them coming from the most diverse musical backgrounds, join forces to create unforgettable concert evenings.
The Magic of AVO SESSION Basel
The festival captivates its audience with its intimate club-like setting with small, candle-lit tables and with a broad musical spectrum featuring daring programme combinations. No other event brings the stars this close.
Each year, approximately 19,000 music fans flock to the festival, which is held in the Festival Hall of the Basel Fair. The total attendance generally ranges somewhere between 95-100% of capacity.
The club-like setting
How it all began…
The AVO SESSION Basel emerged from the Rheinknie Session, which was founded by Enrico Bonometti, Matthias Müller and Stephan Werthmüller in the autumn of 1985. After the three music lovers had organized their own jazz, blues and rock concerts, they decided to launch a new festival: the Rheinknie Session. Their efforts and ambition paid off: the first edition of the event in May of 1986 kicked off with 5 sold out concerts with artists like Oscar Peterson, Albert Collins and Koko Taylor. In the following year, well-known stars like Fats Domino and Buddy Guy appeared. Still in its infancy, the festival, with its focus on blues, jazz and gospel, had come of age.
Regional establishment
The first breakthrough came in 1988, when superstar Miles Davies agreed to appear. This was also the first time that the festival was acknowledged outside of northwestern Switzerland. Such major names as Dizzy Gillespie, Michel Petrucciani and Herbie Hancock followed. Claude Nobs from Montreux Jazz Festival predicted a rosy future for the event and spontaneously became a member of the committee of patrons.
In its first ten years the festival was able to make a good reputation for itself by a process of continuous building up. By progressively integrating musical styles such as world music, soul and funk it proved possible, after 1995, to successfully appeal to a younger audience. As a result, the future shape of the festival started to emerge.
National take-off
In 1997 the festival management decided to revamp the festival's content and look in the medium term. Its image was stylistically rejuvenated and greater importance was attached the performers' national drawing power. This vision was enthusiastically embraced by the new presenting sponsor, AVO Cigars, part of Oettinger Davidoff Group. The growth-centred sponsorship agreement gave the concert series a whole new impetus. The range of artists included such names as Sir Bob Geldof (1998), Ray Charles (1999), James Brown (2000), Chris de Burgh (2001), Paolo Conte (2002), Deep Purple (2003) Lionel Richie (2004), Seal (2005), Sir Elton John (2006), Joe Cocker (2007), Zucchero (2008) and many more.
International reach
The AVO SESSION Basel has managed to reach an international audience with numerous television and radio broadcasts. All of the concerts are recorded each year in their entirety by Swiss Television (SF) and are broadcasted on up to forty television channels on 5 continents.
In 2006, the concert with Sir Elton John became the Festival’s first EUROVISION broadcast, followed by a live broadcast of the Katie Melua concert throughout Europe in 2007. In the same year, the festival’s first live DVD was released in America and in Europe, featuring the concert with Solomon Burke in 2003. More DVDs are scheduled to follow. In 2008, two further concerts were televised live on Swiss television, one with Zucchero and the other with Jethro Tull.
In addition, most of the concerts are also broadcasted on Swiss Radio DRS.
Currently, the AVO SESSION Basel is recognized on the music scene as a high profile European music festival. This renown was a contributing factor in the festival’s success in winning several major awards: «Cultural Brand 2008» in the «International Sponsoring Awards FASPO» and the silver medal in the «Marketing Trophy 2006» in the category «Small Business».
The future
Our successful collaboration with outstanding partners has made it possible for us to maintain the high quality of the festival. Their renewed commitment to the festival has secured the future of the AVO SESSION Basel until 2012. The Oettinger Davidoff Group extended their presenting sponsorship for a third contractual period of 4 years. Our long-running main sponsors: UBS, Baloise, Swisscom and Jaguar have also renewed their contracts with the festival.
Looking forward to continuing a successful partnership:
Matthias Müller , President AVO SESSION Basel;
Avo Uvezian, Musician and Cigar Composer
Dr. Reto Cina, CEO Oettinger Davidoff Group
Beatrice Stirnimann, CEO AVO SESSION Basel
The 200-member festival team eagerly awaits the 25th Edition of the AVO SESSION Basel from 22 October to 14 November 2010. We would be pleased to welcome you as our guest!
