Koktebel (Crimea), Aug 19 (IANS) A massive gathering of jazz lovers who have come to witness the world's longest-running jazz festival were left saddened as heavy unexpected rain resulted in the festival opening being delayed by a day.
Koktebel Jazz Party is one of the biggest events in the cultural life of Crimea and a draw for music lovers around the world. The festival was scheduled to begin on Friday but heavy rain prompted the organisers to first delay it and then postpone the opening ceremony to the next day.
"Crimea held its first Koktebel Jazz Festival in 2003. I was lucky to be its co-founder together with my Ukrainian friends Lilya Mlinarich, Vladimir Solyanik and Kirill Vyshinsky. Musicians and us, we all lived in tents and enjoyed fantastic jam sessions at the foot of the Kara Dag Mountain after the main programme was over.
"Since then, jazz has rocked Koktebel every fall. I am glad to welcome all the fans of its magic to Koktebel Jazz Party this year," festival founder Dmitry Kislev told mediapersons earlier in the day.
For the next two days, Koktebel will turn into a spectacular venue for jazz lovers and enthusiasts. Popular as well as critically renowned bands from Russia, France, Germany, the US, Brazil, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland will be performing at the festival.
This year, two stages have been set up at the festival, for which two dozen tonnes of sound and light equipment were delivered to Koktebel.
Kislev further said that more than 150 jazz bands from five continents have performed at the Koktebel Jazz Party festival in the past 15 years.
The organisers of the festival also announced that its current edition will be inaugurated with a performance of SG BigBand of New Orleans.
Koktebel Jazz Party is an annual international festival, set up in 2003 at the initiative of the current managing director of Rossiya Segodnya agency, Dmitri Kiseliov. This jazz festival, which has managed to garner wide recognition worldwide, owes its name to a small town in Crimea, Koktebel, where it is held annually.
(Saket Suman is in Koktabel at the invitation of Koktabel Jazz Festival organisers. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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