The festival will feature twelve concerts by more than 200 performers from Europe and the US.

The main part of the festival is centred around the violin, but the festival is open to all performers, varying from classical, jazz and folk all the way to rock music. "Quality, not genre, is essential, so the concerts are performed by highly trained musicians," said the festival's artistic director Jernej Brence.

The highlights of this year's festival will be the American Oakland Chorale choir, the Slovenian cello ensemble Cello Attaca featuring accordion player Marko Hatlak, and the Belarusian State Honoured Choreographic Ensemble Khoroshki with a dance performance presenting the development of Belarusian culture.

The Bled Festival is accompanied by masterclass workshops for young musicians from all over the world. Almost 2,000 up-and-coming musicians have perfected their skills at Bled workshops in the last 21 years, among them one of this year's standout performers, acclaimed Hungarian violinist Sandor Javorkai.

Most of the concerts under the patronage of the Bled Culture Institute will take place in Bled's St Martin's Church, with others in the Festival Hall, Bled Castle and Grand Hotel Toplice.

The festival, which is one of the lakeside resort's main cultural events during the summer season, will conclude on 14 July with a concert by Bulgarian brothers Alexander and Konstantin Wladigeroff.