site.btaChiprovtsi Carpet-Making Celebrated at Three-Day Festival

The 9th Chiprovtsi Kilim Festival (April 26-28) opened in this northwestern Bulgarian town on Friday evening as a celebration of the centuries-old local tradition of making flat-weaves.

At stalls in the town centre, more than 100 kilim makers and traders display their merchandise (kilims, wall hangings, T-shirts and mementos) and tell guests the history of the Chiprovtsi kilim. Local girls dressed in authentic folk costumes (aged a couple of centuries) demonstrate how a spinning wheel is used to turn wool into threads of which the kilims are woven. Kilim weaving can be seen as well, on a type of loom that is specific to this area. Authors of books about the history of the kilim and local history and geography present their works, and musicians sing local folk songs.

The programme of the three-day Festival features concerts by the Sofia-based Kanatitsa Folk Ensemble, the Stresher Dance Company, the Balkantsi and Varshets Music orchestras and other performers. On Sunday, there will be an open-air competition for children's drawings of Chiprovtsi kilim motifs, and Chiprovtsi kilims made by Rayna Mincheva will go on display, marking her 100th birth anniversary.

Chprovtsi Mayor Plamen Petkov told BTA that admission to all Festival events is free. He recalled that the tradition of carpet-making in Chiprovtsi was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014. Chiprovtsi kililms are owned by a number of Bulgarian and foreign politicians, diplomats and business persons. Kilim weaving is a slow manual process in which only natural materials and dyes are used. Kilim making skills have been passed from one generation to another for about seven or eight centuries now. The History Museum in Chiprovtsi holds a large collection of kilims spanning the period from the 17th to the 21st century. This treasure trove is a major tourist attraction for visitors from both Bulgaria and abroad.

The festival has been held annually since 2014 except in 2021, when it was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, the Mayor specified.

The 9th Chiprovtsi Kilim Festival is held as part of a project titled "Improved awareness of Roma arts and culture in Chiprovtsi", financed by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.