Monday's late-night concert offered another eccentricity, in the form of Hortus Musicus Tallinn, which was billed as the Soviet Union's best-known early-music group.
There was also a noisy crowd of 36,538 on hand waiting not so patiently for a late-night merengue concert.
But late-night concerts on those evenings feature the Tokyo String Quartet playing Dvorak and Smetana along with Mozart.
But not to be overlooked are the delectably intimate late-night concerts of a type introduced last summer, in a passable imitation of a nightclub.
Mr. Ax also offers two hourlong late-night concerts, one with Ms. Bell, in a series called "A Little Night Music."
The idea of late-night (or early- morning) concerts goes back to the very origins of the festival, in 1966, when it gave two concerts at midnight.
The late-night concert features the Daedalus Quartet playing Ravel and Mozart.
Now, as if proof were needed, and to everyone's joy, he produces a cornet and embarks on the first of a series of late-night concerts.
His innovative programming with that orchestra includes a series of late-night concerts, "Tonhalle Late", which combine classical music and a nightclub setting.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that victims of a bombing during a late-night concert at the 1996 Olympic Games may sue the Games' organizers.