site.btaOpen Buzludzha Festival Kicks Off

Visitors from Bulgaria and abroad gathered near the Buzludzha Monument for the opening of this year's Open Buzludzha festival on Friday, which will run until August 17. This is the fifth edition of the cultural forum, whose mission is to promote the cause of preserving and revitalizing the monument. The festival is organized by the Buzludzha Project Foundation, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, and the festival runs under the motto "A Story to Share."

“The motto is ‘A Story to Share’ because for the first time we are sharing the stories we’ve been collecting about the Buzludzha Monument right here—at the festival,” said architect Dora Ivanova, founder and director of the Buzludzha Project Foundation, in an interview with BTA. “We invite people to experience the site, to share their own stories about the monument, and to create new ones,” she added. According to her, the entire project of preserving the monument is a “story to share,” as it has been made possible thanks to the efforts of many people, institutions, experts, and volunteers from Bulgaria and abroad, who have worked over the past ten years to give the building a future.

“The most important thing that has happened in these ten years is that we managed to change the way this building is perceived. From being an abandoned ruin with no future, it is now a stage for music, culture, and contemporary art -a building with a future,” commented architect Dora Ivanova. She noted that thanks to funding won by the Municipality of Kazanlak for the construction of a roof and windows, the building is now on the brink of implementing its full potential. “We are at the threshold of transforming this abandoned place into the global destination we want it to become,” she said, adding that this is incredibly exciting, and the foundation’s team is happy to share it with the festival guests.

A comprehensive vision for the monument is yet to be developed and coordinated at all levels of government, but what the organizers want to see at the top of Mount Buzludzha is “an open platform for storytelling and sharing,” a place where works by contemporary artists can be showcased, she concluded.

During the opening, the awards for the finalists of the photo contest "Buzludzha Through the Lens of Time," organized by the Municipality of Kazanlak, were also presented. The winning photographs were by Max Bukovski, Slavi Zayakov, Veselin Bonev, Nikolay Shabarkov, Diana Fartunova, Niklas Sjoblom, Lyuben Ivanov, Ivaylo Tsvetanov, and Tencho Petkov. The photos can be viewed on the facade of the monument during the festival. The awards were presented by Mariela Tsekova, Latinka Zaharieva, and Daniela Teneva from the municipal administration in Kazanlak, as well as the chair of the jury, photographer Bedros Azinyan.

The evening continued with a 3D mapping show projected onto the facade of the monument, created by MP-Studio, which showcased a conceptual vision for the future of the site. The music stage was opened by the Samuel Manuelyan Project. The concert program continued with the band Scarlet, the duo Zhivica, a DJ party, and hits from the 1990s.

Over the next two days, the Open Buzludzha festival will offer a diverse program of daytime and evening events. Visitors will be able to take part in guided tours around the monument, creative workshops for children and adults, themed lectures and discussions, and other interactive activities. Tomorrow evening, the stage will welcome musicians from the new Bulgarian rock band Mono and the Stereos, followed by Innerglow—a Bulgarian band with an electronic sound. The evening will conclude with a rock-funk DJ party by DJ Medo.

The festival will close with a classical concert by the string quartet from the chamber ensemble Ars Nova, scheduled for August 17.