Thousands at closing of Jazz Festival and Mayor gets thumbs down

They came in their thousands, from Panama, the interior, and other countries. Lovers of jazz, students, groupies, families, and those who just wanted to be part of Panama’s biggest cultural event: the annual Jazz Festival.

The long check-in lines and body searches didn’t faze the happy crowds as they packed into Cathedral Square, good humored, sociable, relaxed,  snacking, wining, eating candy floss, buying souvenirs, cameras clicking.

The lucky ones spotted Danilo Perez wandering through the crowd, and happily posing with those who wanted to record their meeting with the man who had brought a dream to life and made it all possible.

Hundreds came with their own stools for the final free concert that started at noon and went on late into the evening before the true aficionados headed to the Panama Hotel for the final late night jamboree when Jazz met Latin American Salsa.

 

There was only one passing cloud to darken the universal bonhomie; when city Mayor Bosco Vallarino stepped onto the stage in Cathedral Square to make an announcement. The man who blundered with his failed Christmas Villages  was roundly booed. Wisely he cut his remarks short and left.

 

For more photos of a city at play, go to  PHOTO ALBUMS. “Panama Jazz Festival”.  {jathumbnail off}