Robert Ferguson must have been a relieved man on Monday morning. 

All that organising and planning certainly paid off, as the Swing Supreme jazz & swing band played their final gig in Kalkan's Aubergine restaurant on Sunday night.

See photos below.

All in all, it's been a fantastic week, with big audiences turning up to enjoy quality, live entertainment.  Robert estimates that overall attendances for the week were in the region of 650 people.

On Friday evening there was a concert down by Kalkan Beach, close to the recently opened Pinar Büfe, which was jointly sponsored by Kalkan Belediye and the Kalkander Association.  In one of the breaks, Kalkan Mayor, Saim Karakurt, and his wife Hatice, went on stage to personally thank the performers, and present them with flowers.

We should mention that these performances were thoroughly enjoyed by Turkish people as well as visitors.  If there is anyone who thinks that this kind of music is inappropriate or out of place in Turkey, they should have seen the local Turkish people tapping their feet, dancing and clapping along - especially at the Friday night concert by Kalkan Beach.

Kalkan Turkish Local News spoke to Peter Fenton from the band.  How was the week for them?  "We have all really enjoyed ourselves", said Peter, joking "My only concern this week has been how much time my wife was spending in the local clothes and bag shops, whilst we were playing".  

Quite apart from the enjoyment of the music, there is a great spin-off from this visit.  Audiences at each performance were invited to make a voluntary donation to the Kalkander Association.  It is intended that money raised will be used to support local children in their education.  A total of 2018.81 TL was received, which is a great achievement.  Robert would like to thank people, through KTLN, for their generosity.

And also a big thank you to you Robert for organising this event, and to the band, who came out here from Edinburgh, and waived their usual fee.  KTLN, and we expect quite a few others, would love to see them back in 2010.

Playing in Swing Supreme were:

• Peter Fenton - lead vocals and percussion
• Ian Boyter - tenor saxophone and clarinet
• Alan Quinn - vocals and trombone
• Graham Scott - keyboard

Read more about them on their website: www.swingsupreme.co.uk

Below: left to right, Ian, Peter, Graham and Alan

Below: Swing Supreme at Merkez Cafe

Below: Swing Supreme at Aubergine restaurant

Below: Swing Supreme take time out to relax with tour organiser Robert Ferguson (right)