site.btaApollonia 2023: Booker and Nobel Prize Winners in the Literature Programme, Treasure Trove of Music, Theatre and Cinema

The 39th edition of the Apollonia Arts Festival begins Monday evening in the Black Sea town of Sozopol. Among the highlights are meetings with International Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich in the literature programme. The festival also offers a treasure trove of music in a long bill of concerts and new Bulgarian cinema. 

It will be the first Bulgaria visit by Alexievich and her first time meeting Bulgarian readers, on September 2.

Georgi Gospodinov will be leading a masterclass for creative writing on September 1-3.

Another masterclass will be held by violin virtuoso Mincho Minchev, on September 5. 

Music will be in the opening event for the festival on Monday evening: a gala concert by the Stefan Makedonski Music Theatre. The music bill also includes concerts by the Foundation super group, B.T.R., the Vassil Spassov Jazz Trio, Orquestra Tipica Libertango, a guitar duo, the Yossif Tzankov Jazz Sextet, among others.

Apollonia offers a varied film bill including some of the year’s latest releases, including Chalga, directed by Marian Valev, four documentaries: Morality Is Goodness, Vaklush, A Provincial Hospital, Rooted, Valeri Yordanov’s Shakespeare Like a Street Dog, Tonislav Hristov’s The Good Driver, Avelina Prat’s Vasil, and Borimir Ilkov’s Anna.

For theatre lovers, Apollonia has performances by the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the Sfumato Theatre Laboratory, and Sofia's Theatre of Satire.

There are also many book presentations and exhibitions, as well as a show by the Nayden Kirov folk dance company. 

The first Apollonia Arts Festival in Sozopol was held in 1984.  All these years, its aim has been to showcase the achievements of Bulgarian artists, its authors and performers, to preserve tradition and to support new ideas and experimental solutions in all arts. The festival bill includes theatre, music, poetry and prose, cinema, ballet, architecture, children's programmes and performances. The festival has invariably been held in the Black Sea resort town of Sozopol.