site.btaBelitsa-Semkovo Winter Festival Held in Southwestern Mountains

Sunshine, snow and music welcomed guests from various countries to the Belitsa-Semkovo Winter Festival on Sunday. Traditionally, the annual event popularizes Belitsa, one of the oldest Bulgarian resorts, and fine weather drew winter-mountain lovers from the morning.

This time, Belitsa Municipality has organized the festival together with Coliving Semkovo, a coliving space in another mountain resort in the area. Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova, National Assembly Tourism Committee Chair Erten Anisova, MPs, mayors, and Movement for Rights and Freedoms regional chapter leader Vedat Hyusein gathered for the opening of the festival.

Dinkova said: "I am always moved and excited when I meet the local communities and see the living traditions, the pure hearts of the people, our wonderful, well-preserved nature, and the best and most up-to-date things from Europe. I wish we all work to ensure that Bulgaria is not a well-kept secret and everyone sees how wonderful our country is."

Belitsa Mayor Radoslav Revanski said his greatest ambition is to develop the Semkovo resort, which will contribute to the economic development of the area, boost people's incomes and help overcome the demographic crisis by luring back locals who currently live and work abroad.

Revanski thanked Matthias Zeitler, the investor in Coliving Semkovo, and recalled his own pledge to have the road to Semkovo repaired by May. The mayor expects that Zeitler "will invest a lot of resources, will bring many people from around the world to live here and become members of our community, to work from here and advertise our area".

Zeitler said his cooperative has already attracted more than 60 people from 30 countries. The idea is to turn Semkovo into a magnet for hundreds of digital nomads from all over the world. The investor said Semkovo is the best place for people who work with a computer and can do it remotely from anywhere in the world.

After the opening ceremony, mummers from Bansko performed a ritual for chasing evil spirits away, making wishes for good health and success. The festival continued with music and dance performances by folk groups from Belitsa and horo chain-dances that meandered in front of the stage in the mountain.