The international Aqua Jazz festival will open in Russia's Olympic city of Sochi on Saturday as part of the city's ongoing Sochi 2014 Cultural Olimpiad, well-known Russian Saxophonist and festival producer Igor Butman said.
"For the next four years Sochi is going to be one of the cultural centers of the world, with its wide array of exhibitions, concerts and performances," Butman said.
"I've been involved in the "Aqua-jazz" festival since 2002 and it has always attracted the best jazz musicians from across Russia. With the help of Sochi's Cultural Olympiad, we not only plan to renew this project and raise it to an international level."
Butman said that Sochi lacked a proper cultural scene and so jazz, one of the most positive and democratic art forms, would help to enliven the resort town.
"Holding such a festival in Sochi has long been a dream of mine," he said.
The Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad, which officially opened this year, four years prior to the start of the Sochi Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2014, will host more than a thousand different cultural events, the official Sochi Olympics website says.
Each year of the Cultural Olympiad is dedicated to one individual art from: 2010 is the Year of Cinema, 2011 the Year of Theatre, 2012 will be the Year of Music and 2013 the Year of Museums.
The closing ceremony of the Cultural Olympiad will take place during the 2014 Winter Games and bring together the best projects from the entire Olympiad.
SOCHI, July 17 (RIA Novosti)
