The International Jazz Festival Bansko 2011 began

The International Jazz Festival Bansko 2011 began on 6 August with three concerts attended by thousands of spectators.

Traditionally, the festival is officially opened on 8 August. So it will be this year. The six concerts this weekend (on August 6 and 7) were a gift from the organizers for the local residents and visitors of the beautiful resort town of Bansko.
The first to come on the stage were the musicians from Dixie Band Teteven. Their repertoire of traditional pieces coupled with their wonderful contact with the audience drew a lot of applause from the audience.
Exactly at 8.30 pm, the Bulgarian pop diva Lili Ivanova came on the stage only to prove for yet another time her amazing professionalism and ability to captivate audiences. The audience was numerous and versatile, including current and former politicians, businessmen, and people from all over the country. Some of them arrived in Bansko especially for this concert. For nearly two hours, Lili Ivanova sang for her audience, receiving rapturous applause and many flowers. At the end of the concert, the star performed several encores amidst a standing ovation. Her last song was “Are You Only a Dream" - a favorite of several generations of Bulgarians. The notable musicians who accompanied Lili’s performances contributed greatly to the success of the long-awaited concert.

Several before the festival, the organizers announced a change in the program - instead of the musicians from the Egyptian group Percussion show, another Egyptian band, Eftekasat, will play. They were the last to perform on August 6 and stayed until late at night on the stage, supported by enthusiastic fans of their colorful style punctuated with typical ethnic melodies and rhythms born in the land of the pharaohs. The hosts, Toma Sprostranov and Nikolai Zahariev, did a short interview in Bulgarian with Amro Salah, piano and keyboards, who presented the group. When asked how come he had such a good knowledge of our language, he replied: "13 years ago, I took a Bulgarian rose. In other words, my wife is Bulgarian and I am very happy with it! "

On the very first night, it became clear that the central Bansko square will not be large enough to accommodate everyone who has arrived in the town for the jazz festival. The audience had taken all open spaces around the stage, reaching as far back as the entrance of the Nikola Vaptsarov Museum.

Today, a true celebration of Bulgarian folklore in all its various incarnations will come alive on the stage. Thrace Folk Ensemble presents a panorama of Bulgarian traditional dances - something that happens for the first time in a parallel program of the festival. Folk singer Albena Veskova and Tony Zlatanov will present their joint project in which famous flute piper Vladimir Velichkov plays. And the Balkan Horses formation arrives in Bansko for the first time with a repertoire from their latest album.

The official opening of the festival is on 8 August. Traditionally, the first on the stage will be the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio, for the first time with its new conductor Antoni Donchev. Special guests in the program are Vasil Petrov and Mary Taneva. The second concert will feature the magnificent a cappella ensemble Jazzex Band from Ukraine that will perform in Bansko for the second time. Their repertoire includes jazz arrangements of classical and folk tunes. The opening night will close with the concert of two of the biggest names in the festival - jazz singer Jackie Ryan and pianist Larry Vuckovich. Well-known in the USA, they arrive in Bulgaria for the first time. Their concert is expected to turn into one of the most memorable experiences of this edition of the forum.

And the program is indeed very rich, featuring some 230 musicians from nearly 20 different countries.