site.btaFlagpole Rozhen to Be Inaugurated with Solemn Ceremony on July 13, Day Before Start of Rozhen Festival

The first monument of the Bulgarian flag, the Rozhen Flagpole will be inaugurated with a solemn ceremony on July 13. From July 14 to 16, the 2023 Rozhen Festival of Folk Art and Animal Husbandry will take place, the Heritage in the Future Foundation said.

The festive program on July 13 will start at 6 pm, with performances by the folklore Rodopa and Thrace ensembles . Then, the Rozhen meadows will be resounded by songs about Bulgaria, as well as by performances of children from the Bulgarian diaspora abroad. Over 400 reconstructions, artists, singers, musicians and stuntmen will take part in the show with historical reenactments at the foot of the monument. The solemn ceremony of raising the national flag of the Republic of Bulgaria 111 meters high and the opening of the Rozhen Flagpole will be at 9 pm, followed by folklore dancing. The celebration will continue with more surprises from the organizers and will end with a fire show. 

The organizers said that the preparatory works on the site are finished, the height installation of the impressive facility and the recultivation of the adjacent area are being prepared. 

The initiative for raising the national flag on the Rozhen meadows is organized by Heritage in the Future Foundation. The monument is dedicated to the 111th anniversary of the liberation of the Rhodope Mountains and the 120th anniversary of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. The height of the flagpole of 111 meters symbolizes the area of Bulgaria of 111 thousand square kilometers. At the base will be a map of Bulgaria engraved with messages from the country's 28 administrative districts, as well as a time capsule with messages for future generations.

On June 19, the Ministry of Environment and Water said that the land plot where the 111-metre-high Rozhen flagpole is being built does not fall within the boundaries of protected areas under the Protected Areas Act. The inspection was carried out by experts from Regional Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Smolyan on a signal from the Balkani Wildlife Society. The Rozhen protected area is located about 0.9 km in a straight line to the east of the site and does not fall within the boundaries of protected areas within the meaning of the Biodiversity Act. The nearest protected area, BG0001030 "Rhodopes West", is approximately 4.58 kilometres away, according to the opinion of the Regional Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Smolyan.

The project is implemented through the National Donation Campaign, titled "Bulgaria Deserves!", under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev. The initiative can be supported through the campaign website www.pilon.rozhen.bg, through the donation account: IBAN: BG31DEMI92405000304216, as well as through donation SMS with text DMS ZNAME to 17 777 (for all mobile operators). Media partners in the project are the Bulgarian News Agency, the Bulgarian National Television, the Bulgarian National Radio, 24 Chasa daily, Trud daily and others.