The flamboyant gilt cornices surrounding the small stage and heavy velvet curtaining of the Opera House certainly evoke a certain element of kitsch, but the heady furnishings compete with its intimate atmosphere concentrating the viewer on whoever's centre stage, and if we follow the Liberace's inner-theatre analogy, that figure would undoubtedly have been himself. At the Four Four Time Festival over the last two weeks in contrast to this image it was all about the music, and no offence to Mr Liberace, a damn sight more interesting too.

Despite the absence of one of the anticipated highlights, Nitin Sawhney who cancelled due to a bad hand and snow storms that threatened to cut Buxton off for pretty much the duration, there were fantastic performances from some great musicians and an eclectic mix of styles.

Courtney Pine played a storming set to an appreciative audience, combining superb showmanship with a blistering pace. Andy Sheppard, and Joanna McGregor took a dip into the American songbook in their short but electric performance. McGregor, animated with hands and braided hair flying in equal measure, was often on her feet reaching into her Steinway and attacking the strings, sampling and looping her performance to build it into a frenzy which managed never to get too crowded. She stood in total contrast to Sheppard, whose stillness on-stage belied the speed and complexity of his playing.

After their short performance of an hour it was a quick slide across the ice to see Eddie Martin's guitar and harp-driven Texas blues in the genteel Pavillion Gardens where once upon a time tea dances were held for the upwardly mobile who came to take the Buxton waters. But for me, the highlight was the excellent Sharon Shannon Band who were everything contemporary Irish folk music should be and who quietly eclipsed Eliza Carthy's accomplished headline set.

Baluji Shrivastav split his set in two and played the first half as classical Indian, the sitar and tabla accomplished if a little detached improvising on raags. More disappointing was the second half in which he was joined onstage by the 'Jazz Orient', which despite some nifty multi-instrumentalism from Chris Conway on guitar, violin, sax and percussion, and some neat understated tabla work, was messy and uncomfortable to listen to in places.

The festival was surprisingly untouched by the extreme snow storms which raged throughout the two weeks, due to the lengths the audience were willing to go to get there. There were few in the crowd from the town itself, and a couple I talked to were even camping in three feet of snow to stay in the area for the festival.

Buxton, with its compact but impressive opera house has always struck me as an unusual place to stage high profile music events, but it manages to remain home to an annual blues festival, rather unsurprisingly an opera festival, and this is the third yearly outing for Buxton's live music festival, of 10 days and 22 acts and long may it continue.