The story
Rozhen National Folklore Fair in Rozhen Meadows
Rozhen's sabor, a traditional Bulgarian fair-and-festival hybrid combining folk competition with craft and food trade, began in 1898 as a rare sanctioned meeting point for villagers split by the old Bulgarian-Ottoman border running through Rozhen Peak. Held on open meadows south of Chepelare, it centers on Rhodopean song and gaida music rather than a national folklore sampler, closing each first evening with the Zvezden Rozhen night performance.
In 1972, the largest edition of the Rozhen fair drew 3,500 performers, including 300 gaida players, in front of an audience estimated at 150,000, figures that dwarf anything else staged on this mountain plateau in the Rhodopes.