site.btaCultural Festival Brings Together Several Locations Along Struma River in Bulgaria, Greece

A cultural festival brings together several locations along the Struma River in Bulgaria and Greece in early September. The Stages on Struma festival includes a variety of events related to different arts - music, poetry, dance, theatre, painting, cinema and photography as well as martial arts. It combines spiritual and physical improvement and facilitates the experience and knowledge of foreign cultures, the organizers said Thursday.

Stages on Struma will take place from September 2 to 9, organized by the Municipality of Kyustendil, the Presto Music House and the Kyustendil Brotherhood Community Centre, and the Greek Embassy in Bulgaria is its patron and partner.

The upcoming edition will have stages in different places along the river - Sofia, Radomir, Kyustendil and in Asprovalta, Greece, where the closing concert will take place. Once again, both children and adults - amateurs and professionals in various spheres of art and sport - will participate. 

This year marks the third edition of the festival and the stages will host performers from Bulgaria, Albania, Azerbaijan, Germany, Greece, China and Switzerland.

In the first two editions there were participants from Bulgaria, England, Azerbaijan, Albania, France, China, Argentina, Morocco, Switzerland.  

For the first time the festival dedicates a whole day to the culture of one country, Greece, which will take place on September 3.

The organizers also pointed out that the exhibition Pier Tower - Shield of Culture, provided by Gallery 13 from the city of Drama, Greece, can be seen in the Pier Tower in Kyustendil between September 3 and 10. In the hall of the Brotherhood Community Centre in Kyustendil can be seen screenings of award-winning films from the International Short Film Festival in Drama.

The opening of the festival is on Saturday, September 2, at 11:00. In addition to the traditional Friendship concert with performances by children and youth, booths will again be set up with information about other countries. A photo exhibition will present Unknown, but so close: Azerbaijan. 

The festival programme includes performances by Tsvetana Bandalovska - soprano, Christiana Loizu - soprano, Mario Nikolov - tenor, Svetlana Ivanova - soprano, Denitsa Kazakova - violin, Anna Yankova - mezzo-soprano, Micho Dimitrov - violin, as well as Anna Tancheva - actress, who will present The Purest Brush - a musical and poetic performance dedicated to the life and paintings of the Master, Diana Kavakliyska with the mono-performance "The Poetess". The soloists will be accompanied by the Vidin Simfonietta.