KOKTEBEL (Crimea) (Sputnik) – Ticket sale revenues at Koktebel Jazz Party in Crimea, which are to be allocated for supporting the local school, will allow the school to become the best in the region, the festival’s founder and Director General of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency Dmitry Kiselev said Saturday.
"It is a normal state school, the local and regional authorities must fund it while we will provide bonuses. I think that in due course we will make the school the best in the region. It is a small school, and the festival brings rather small amounts of money, around 1.5 million rubles [$30,000], but it is a significant addition to the budget of this school," Kiselev said.
"We have worked on the urgent things – we have made a courtyard in the school as the children previously had no place to walk out, but it was rather an anomaly," Kiselev pointed out, adding that the funds collected in 2017 might be allocated for constructing the school’s sports base.
According to Sergei Zhiradkov, director of the Koktebel school, it has received over 1 million rubles after the 2016 festival which, was used to purchase various equipment, including computers, and connect the school to the internet.
Around 350 children study in the Koktebel school, which needs large-scale renovation.
Every year since 2003, the small Crimean settlement of Koktebel has hosted the jazz festival. The 2016 Koktebel Jazz Party is held on Friday and Sunday.
