Jazz sounds above the caldera

It has been about 12 years that a special festival is held on the island of Santorini: the Jazz Festival. It first started in 1997 pushed by the love of two people for jazz music. Antonis Kutrubilis, resident of Santorini and owner of Cine Kamari, and Vasilis Tzatzias, professional musician from Athens, joined their passion for this elegant music style and organized this interesting festival here in Santorini, the most special island of Greece. "Santorini is a unique island", told us Mrs Ina Kutrubilis, one of the festival's organizers. "Its impressive caldera, the beaches and the pure Cycladic vibe rank the island among the world's most popular tourist destinations. The festival reinforces the impression of the visitor that natural environment and culture are well-combined notions". What kind of events does the Jazz Festival include? Can you mention some artists that have taken part in the festival? The Jazz Festival includes every kind of event that promotes culture. The word Jazz is not only a musical term but also an attitude towards things, an attitude that favours creativity and improvisation. Therefore, Jazz gives more space to artists who serve their art with passion and dedication, while it also permits new, innovative moves, regardless of their "commercial" effect. Over the last years, Jazz Festival has hosted artists from Greece and abroad that cover a vast range of modern music, from mainstream jazz (Mordy Ferber, World String Trio, Lydia Filipovic) and ethnic music (Rabindra Goswami, Ross Daly, Palyrria) to soul funk (Down Town Beat). How do you choose the artists to take part in the festival? Do you invite them or they call participation themselves? The interest of the artists to take part in the festival is really flattering for us. Hundreds of musicians and groups from every continent have expressed their desire to take part in one of our next festivals. So, our work mainly focuses on the evaluation of these artists, to see if they meet the qualitative standards we have set. About how many people attend your festival every year? About 1,500-2,000 people. The amazing thing is that people from different countries of the world attend it, making the festival a multi-cultural event as people with different cultural backgrounds come into contact. At first, the festival lasted for three days but now there are events for all summer. Note that the events take place in Cine Kamari, a lovely place which has been described by The Guardian as one of the best open cinemas in the world. Have you published this year's schedule? We will publish it soon.