The 16th annual Koktebel Jazz Party festival came to a close on August 26 on the coast of the Black Sea, with performances given by jazz stars. For three days the popular Crimean town was transformed into an open-air concert hall: musicians could be heard rehearsing in various points from early morning on and the evening marathon followed the day concerts (by the way, entrance was free). Jam and improvisation sessions took place later in the night in a more intimate atmosphere similar to that of a club.
This year, the festival was held at five venues all at once for the first time. Koktebel water park and dolphinarium were added to the Main and Voloshinskaya stages and Artek's big stage in Gurzuf that was successfully tried out last August. The water park served as a debut stage. The Rebirth Вrass Band and the New York Latin Jazz All Stars from the US, as well as the British band Incognito, the remarkable singer Deborah Brown, the famous trumpeter Eddie Henderson (both from the US), pianist Vahagn Hayrapetyan (Armenia), Rajeev Raja Combine (India), the Segar Band (China) and Russian jazz icons Yakov Okun and Mikhail Okun, Oleg Starikov, German Lukyanov and Alexei Bekker were the festival's headliners.
Former Russian Minister of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities, auditor of the Russian Accounts Chamber Mikhail Men performed together with the iconic guitar player Dmitry Chetvergov as part of the ChetMen band. Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov and the State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya were among the guests at the festival.
When Koktebel Jazz Party was in full swing, the festival participants and volunteers took part in the environmental project, For Clean Crimea and cleaned up the Tikhaya Bay, which is the favorite spot of local residents and tourists. "On the one hand, we have masses of art and magnificent nature but on the other hand we have inherited a terrible environmental problem. This is intolerable," said Dmitry Kiselev, head of Koktebel Jazz Party's organizing committee and Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency Director General. Following the environmental cleanup project, Dmitry Kiselev and Chairman of the Association of Volunteer Centers' Council Artyom Metelev signed a partnership agreement between Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency and the association.
Closing the festival, Dmitry Kiselev assured the audience that the next Koktebel Jazz Party will take place during the last weekend of August next year.