The mountainous resort Bansko was filled with much more than just jazz recently, when it hosted the Fourth International Bansko Jazz Fest 2001.

Lots of music, a seminar for peace on the Balkans through art, and an unsuccessful attempt for a Guinness World record were among the mélange of events, which took place in the southwestern town from August 8 to 13, pleasing more than just jazz lovers.

The fest took place after several months of preparation and unorthodox promotion through a mini jazz concert in Bansko this spring, following problems with the previous co-organizer of the festival, Griffin Ltd.

The organizers - the Bansko Municipality, Elite advertising agency, and Yana Tour travel agency - attracted more foreign performers than ever before, at least two for each night of the fest. Among the performers were pianist Axel Zwingenberger from Germany, French pianist Ludovic de Preissac, and the Original Salz Sieders band from Germany. The Germans were true originals, wearing Tyrolean costumes and playing retro jazz on brass instruments.

Among the most exotic performers were Egyptian percussionist Yehia Khalil, the Eli De Gibiri Quartet of Israel, the Caruso of South Africa Jo Curtis Willems, and half-Bulgarian-half-Greek singer Viki Almazadou.

There was also more Dixie land music than before, as some bands performed popular jazz, which the organizers found suitable for the varied audience and the open-air stage. Among these were regular participants, the Big Band of Bulgarian National Radio, the Blagoevgrad Big Band, and Sofia Dixie Swing. Another attraction was the jazz barbecues - jazz was played at lunchtime at some of the best local hotels - which aimed at having jazz everywhere all the time. Still, the mehanas (traditional restaurants, usually playing Macedonian folk songs) were quite populated.

The Bansko environment had enough jazz by Saturday night, so on Sunday and Monday the program was transferred to the local chitalishte (culture club). The concert on Sunday night by Lyudmil Georgiev, Vassil Petrov, Stefka Onikian and Kamelia Todorova in memory of Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was among the less fortunate events that had to take place indoors.

The festival was tightly bonded to the necessity of turning Bansko into a desired tourism destination for the summer and not just the winter. However, Iliana Shtereva of Yana Tour said she was not expecting any organized groups of foreigners, due to the situation in neighbouring Macedonian and the negative publicity surrounding the problems with Griffin Ltd. But all the hotels filled up, she said, and she expected that individual jazz-lovers would arrive without previous arrangements. In the middle of the fest, private rooms offering charming traditional and local atmosphere could be rented at prices a few times lower than the posh hotels.

Georgiev hosted the shows, presenting in both Bulgarian and in English. Unfortunately, clerks at the Bansko bus station did not speak any English, and some of those individual jazz-lovers, namely two backpackers from Germany, had great difficulty getting on a bus to Blagoevgrad on Saturday.

Canadian resident Ivan Kristoff, known as the Bulgarian Spider Man, attempted to set a record for the Guinness Book of World Records. He intended to climb up a rope hanging from a hot air balloon 100m above ground. But weather was not on his side - there was wind, and the balloon could not rise high enough. After three attempts, Kristoff called it quits, and gave autographs to the dozens of children that were hunting down everybody at the fest who seemed to be a celebrity.

The festival was also very topical with a seminar on "Art: A Bridge of Tolerance Among Ethnic Groups on the Balkans." It had as speakers Georgi Tassev, the mayor of Bansko, Greek Ambassador to Bulgaria Mihalis Christidis, and history professor Andrei Pantev and acting professor Stefan Danailov, who are also MPs in the 39th Parliament.