site.btaAnnual Festival of Chiprovtsi Carpet to Welcome Visitors after Two-year Break 

After a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Festival of the Chiprovtsi Carpet will once again welcome visitors from Bulgaria and abroad, Chiprovtsi, Northwestern Bulgaria. Organized by the Chiprovtsi Town Hall and the local History Museum, the three-day event opens on April 29.

The tradition of carpet-making in Chiprovtsi has been in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2014.

Chiprovtsi History Museum Director Anita Komitska said that this year's edition of the festival will include an exhibition of old Chiprovtsi carpets, a talk on Balkan weaving, photo exhibitions and demonstrations of carpet-making.

In a radio broadcast about the upcoming event, Komitska said that one of the highlights of the festival is an exhibition of old Chiprovtsi carpets from the collection of Jaap Van Beelen - a Dutchman who has been living in Bulgaria for many years and who is an avid connoisseur of traditional Bulgarian folklore. Van Beelen's exhibition opens on April 30 in the Carpet Exhibition Hall of the Chiprovtsi Museum of History. 

Jaap, or Jacob as he is known among his friends in Bulgaria, is a big collector of carpets from Chiprovtsi and from Kotel, Northeastern Bulgaria. With the idea that such specimens of the Bulgarian carpets need to be taken back to the places where they were made: Kotel and Chiprovtsi, Jaap invests substantial personal resources in locating, buying and taking back to Bulgaria carpets sold in markets and antique stores in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe. 

Another highlight of the festival is a talk on Balkan weaving to be given by a family of carpet collectors from the United States, Tim and Penny Hays, who in the past two years have made two donations old Chiprovtsi carpets to the Chiprovtsi Museum, and plan on making another one in person during the festival. The talk will be on April 30, in the Carpet Exhibition Hall of the Chiprovtsi Museum of History. Komitska said the Museum is extremely grateful for the five rare Chiprovtsi carpets from the 18th century the Hays family has donated to the Museum.  

The festival also features two photo exhibitions. The first, which opens in the courtyard of the landmark Katerina's House in Chiprovtsi, is called "My Granny's Carpet". The other one is a guest arts and crafts exhibition of the St Kliment Ochridski Univeristy of Sofia, entitled "Crafts Do Not Give Up. Hats Off!".