May 6 is among the most popular days in Bulgaria – the Day of St. George and the Day of Valour and of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. 9 May is Europe Day, a day of unity for the continent. In the days in-between, Sofia will play host to the first international LUNAR Festival of Lights.

Thirteen static light shows and 3D mappings onto different buildings, high-tech installations and an interactive drawing studio will turn iconic locations in Bulgaria’s capital city into one big open-air gallery. Artists from Bulgaria, Australia, Germany, Spain, India, France and Sweden will tell you their stories, and will fire the imagination with their “stories in light” on each of the four evenings from 8.30 PM until midnight. Admission to all shows is free.

“It has been my personal dream to do a festival of lights in the town where I was born – Sofia,” says Marin Petkov, art director of the Bulgarian studio organizing the LUNAR festival. In the past 14 years, Marin and his team have carried out over 450 projects in more than 25 countries. In 2011 they created the first 3D mapping show in Bulgaria, transforming the building of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

They are the authors of the light shows on Europe Day in 2017 and 2018 on the buildings of the National Art Gallery and the Council of Ministers in Sofia.

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“The festival of lights comes from Berlin, it was held for the first time 18 years ago, and has been organized in different towns worldwide ever since. It was inspired by the Asian festival of lights. We, as a studio, have a long history with the festival, which goes back many years to the time when we won the first mapping championship. The following year we won the competition again, and since then we have been engaged with its production – in Berlin, in Zagreb, Budapest, Kuwait, Beijing, Luxembourg.”

The organizers have chosen the neo-classical façade of the Kvadrat 500 (Square 500) National Gallery to be the starting point of the 3-kilometre long itinerary  – there the 3D mapping show Imagine will be presented. “With this show we shall mark Europe Day, as well as the European Year of Youth, 2022,” Marin Petkov said for Radio Bulgaria.

The festival locations also include the façade of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the public garden in front of it, the Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library, the Prince Alexander I Square.

“We were very keen to do the project at the locations we love best. Mixing nature with technology makes things even more beautiful. I am so glad that the National Theatre is part of the installations. The work there was supported by Sofia municipality and it is the focus of the efforts of all mapping studios in Bulgaria. Together we create a vision under the motto: Shining together. We tried to choose the locations so they would be in walking distance from one another, so that people will be able to walk the itinerary in one night.”

The biggest 3D mapping show will be Glowing Heart – on the building of the National Palace of Culture, showing the work of the three winners selected after a contest which the festival’s team conducted at the end of April. There will also be a seminar with lectures on eight topics with a guest speaker from a leading software company in Germany. “We are hoping to inspire more young people, to help professionals meet other professionals in the sphere and form a community,” Marin Petkov says, explaining the idea behind the workshop.

The Festival of Lights conveys a different kind of meaning in the dark times Europe is going through. Marin says it is very important to think positive, and that today, more than ever, we need positive initiatives that bring light. “With its works, the LUNAR festival aims to tell stories connected with peace, with unity, solidarity and to show the way leading to sustainability. In the dark days of war, the suffering of Ukraine and the adversities the democratic world faces, the messages Sofia, as a European capital must convey are very important,” says Georgi Georgiev, chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council and patron of the first edition of the LUNAR festival.