Vintage cars and jazz – this is what music lovers in Bourgas and tourists will be looking forward to over the weekend. Thanks to Bourgas Municipality and the America for Bulgaria Foundation, from Friday, 11 July until Sunday, 13, July, different Bulgarian jazz formations will give concerts on open-air stages in the city and on St. Anastasia island.

“Jazz lovers in Bourgas as well as the guests to the city have been looking forward to this first jazz festival for a long time,” Lyudmila Koutieva, chief organizer of the events says. “In the course of three days a variety of cultural events, dedicated to jazz will take place in the Sea Garden. The festival kickstarts with a procession of vintage cars and a concert by the Bourgas brass band. That same evening we open a photography exhibition called Painting Jazz; we organize photography expositions every year, this time we dedicate the event to jazz. Ten photographers from the city are taking part in it with photographs of fragments of different concerts that have taken place around the city. The concert by the Bourgas Brass Band will be followed by performances by Euphonia Instrumentalis: Vesselina Dragolova-Danailova, vocals, Ventsislav Blagoev, trumpet, Dimitar Karamfilov, double bass, Kalin Zhechev, piano and Stoyan Yankulov-Stoundji, drums - who will present a project of improvisations based on classical music, jazz and folklore. So, it will be a fascinating concert on an open-air stage called The Snail.”

How did the idea of bringing together vintage cars and jazz music come about?

“During one of his visits to the cultural centre, here in Bourgas, the American ambassador gave me a book about jazz with photographs of vintage cars and the most renowned musicians of their times inside. That was where I got the idea,” Lyudmila Koutieva says.

The first edition of Retro Jazz Festival, Bourgas continues on Saturday, 12, July with a children’s workshop called Improvising jazz with paint and musical notes that will take place at a spot that is unique to the city – the Fairytale Wall. There, trumpet player Ventsi Blagoev, together with other musicians will be keeping the children amused by telling them all about different kinds of musical instruments. And the children will be able to try out their musical talent.

The festival programme also features the ms BRASS quintet, who will relate the history of the different jazz genres in music and dance. The Retro Jazz Festival ends on 13, July. Lyudmila Koutieva tells us how:

“The highlight of the festival is on the last day, Sunday when there will be a concert by jazz singer Kamelia Todorova with the Bulgarian National Radio’s Big Band at the Open-air theatre. There will be an auxiliary stage on St. Anastasia island, where that same night another jazz singer, Miroslava Katsarova will present her new project Cinema. Our choice of second stage was no coincidence, as many Bulgarian films have been shot on the island.”

English version: Milena Daynova