Munich hosts Bulgarian folk festival for diaspora communities

This weekend, Munich is hosting Bulgarians from around the world for the 11th edition of “Na Megdana na Drugata Bulgaria” (“On the Village Square of the Other Bulgaria”), a festival devoted to Bulgarian folk dance and traditions kept alive abroad.

A total of 108 dance groups and nine individual performers are taking part in the three-day event, held this year under the theme “Libe le, libe, hubavo…”, a phrase drawn from a Bulgarian folk song.

Among the participants is Brussels folk ensemble “Na Horoto”, whose members travelled separately from across Europe to reach the German city ahead of the festival.

“Almost our entire group is already in Munich,” said the ensemble’s leader, Maria Tsvetkova.

“Last night we went for a short walk through the city and came across a horo dance in one of the squares. We joined in and it turned out to be a group from Cologne,” she said. “Munich is already beginning to feel the atmosphere of the festival.”

The Brussels group will perform a newly created Thracian dance choreographed by Venetslav Nedelchev from the Bulgarian city of Ruse. According to Tsvetkova, the piece revives little-known horo dances documented during ethnographic field research among Bulgarian communities in Aegean Thrace, a historical region now largely within modern-day Greece.

“We wanted to bring something audiences do not usually see on stage,” she said.

The performance, titled “Za Edna Karpa” (“For a Handkerchief”), combines humour and storytelling and will be performed within the festival’s strict six-minute time limit.

Preparing the choreography proved challenging for the Brussels-based ensemble, whose members frequently travel for work and were often unable to rehearse together in full formation. The choreography itself was completed only in early February, leaving the dancers just two days to learn parts of the new routine.

Despite the pressure, Tsvetkova said the gathering remained unlike any other event for Bulgarian communities abroad.

“It is a chance to meet people, exchange ideas and see what other groups have created,” she said. “There is nothing else quite like it.”

Editor: Desislava Semkovska