The story
Burgas International Folklore Festival in Burgas
Running since 1965, the Burgas International Folklore Festival predates Varna's comparable folklore event by nearly thirty years and is centered on the city's Summer Theatre, with additional shows at Nessebar's ancient amphitheatre and Sunny Beach. It has hosted roughly 440 ensembles and more than 18,000 participants across its history and has held CIOFF membership since 1978. It is organized separately from Varna's folklore festival, with its own founding history and venues.
Burgas began its own international folklore festival in 1965, originally billed as a Balkan gathering of national songs and dances, nearly three decades before Varna's municipality started its comparable folklore event in 1992, which makes the Burgas festival the older of Bulgaria's two Black Sea coast folklore showcases by a wide margin.