If music is the lyrics of the soul, then dance is body language. Plovdiv hosts once again a folk festival, which gathers on one stage folk dances from different cultures on August 4 – 8. Mr. Kiril Velchev, an expert with the cultural department of the Plovdiv Municipality gives us details on the forum’s accents:

“The 20^th jubilee edition of the International Folk Festival takes place this year. We are looking forward to see the participants and the concerts they have prepared. Our foreign guests will be from Georgia, Greece, China, Korea, Latvia and Serbia. The Voivodinovtsi Ensemble from the village of the same name near Plovdiv will mark the Bulgarian participation, along with the Strandja professional ensemble from the town of Burgas. Traditionally, the Thrace folklore ensemble will attend the opening and closure of the festival. The music of this edition will be live, performed by singers and instrumentalists. The small stage of the Stefan Stambolov square will host the 6 pm concerts, while the major evening events will be onstage the Antique Theatre.”

The culmination of the International Folk Ensemble will be on August 8. Kiril Velchev tells us more on the plans of the organizers, regarding the good mood of the audience:

“We have envisaged a gala concert with performances of all formations. The laureates of the previous edition of the Balkan Folk Festival have been invited: the Hopni Mi, Tropni Mi dance club of Sofia’s University of Forestry and the Sedenchitsa dance formation from Plovdiv. Their participation unveils the latest edition of the Balkan Folklore Festival. The peak of this jubilee edition will be marked by the performances of the Korean and Chinese formations. Those will interweave martial art elements in their presentation. I think the audience will find this quite interesting.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev