site.btaUPDATED BTA Signs Partnership with Heritage in the Future Foundation

The Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Kiril Valchev, signed a partnership agreement with the Heritage in the Future Foundation, organizer of the Rozhen National Folklore Fair. The contract was signed at the BTA National Press Club.

Director general Valchev said that the reason this partnership is especially significant is that both the Rozhen National Folklore Fair and and BTA are celebrating their 125th anniversary in 2023. 

BTA is starting a partnership with the foundation for its project to launched to build a 111-metre pole to fly the Bulgarian flag. Valchev explianed that this will be the highest flag in the EU, also placed at the highest altitude (1,430 meters above sea level) and will be the 14th highest in the world.

Under the BTA Act, BTA has a special responsibility, and that is to promote and protect national traditions, noted Valchev and added that if there is progress in the world, it stands precisely on the foundation of traditions.

Valchev reaclled the history of the Rozhen National Folklore Fair, which was first organized by priest Angel Indjov, from the village of Slaveino, in 1898, to honour all the saints of the Rozhen chapels on the Feast Day of St. Panteleimon, July 27. The fair grew from a place for family gatherings to a massive national event celebrating Bulgarian folklore traditions. Valchev recalled that in 1961, the first  singing competition was held within the framework of the fair and over 500 performers between to 70 years of age participated, with jury chair Petko Stainov.

The BTA Director General presented a color copy of the BTA bulletin from August 1961 to Simeon Karakolev, who represented Heritage in the Future Foundation, with the words of Stainov: "It can be said with certainty that nowhere else has song been raised to such a cult status as in the Rhodopes. Here, there is an inexhaustible supply of poetic and musical folk creativity".

Karakolev, on his part, expressed hope that on the day before the Rozhen National Folklore Fair and its 125th anniversary, the ceremony of raising the 111-metre Bulgarian flag pole will take place. Karakolev stated that the flag will have an area of 11,111 metres. He recalled that next year marks the 111th anniversary of the liberation of the Rhodopes, and that and the border furrow between the newly liberated Principality of Bulgaria and the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia  passed through the Rozhen meadows. 

"The Rozhen National Folklore Fair, in its very creation, was a unifying event, and we hope that next year it will show exactly this essence," he added. The 2019 flag, which was over 7,000 square metres in size, will be converted into 11,100 smaller flags that will be used at the pole unveiling ceremony, Karakolev added. He noted that the opening ceremony is under the auspices President Rumen Radev.

The partnership between BTA and the Heritage in the Future Foundation stipulates that, from the signing of the contract, BTA will publish information related to the organization of the events on a weekly basis. 

The organizers of the The Rozhen National Folklore Fair specified that there are still no fixed dates for the fair in 2023.

In addition to the fair in Rozhen, and the flag pole project, the partnership also includes the coverage of the National Festival of Sheep Breeders in Bulgaria (May, 2023) in Arbansi.