Among the centuries-old forests and meadows of the most mystical Bulgarian mountain – the Rhodope Mountains, a non-traditional and non-urban festival takes places, gathering under the open sky musicians, artists, acrobats, poets and artists from all over the country. It is known as Beglika Festival after the name of the picturesque Golyam Beglik Dam, which is an attractive place for lovers of nature.

With the 10^th edition of Beglika Fest approaching, the organizers promise to continue the event this year will have one additional day and will feature a rich program with something for everyone. The festival will be held from 22 to 27 August and will run under the motto "Ten Steps on the Road". The musical program of Beglika Festival 2018 is very well presented. It brings together both new and well-known Bulgarian projects in the field of ethno, jazz, pop, rock and world music. Among the most popular names on the playbill are Kottarashky, Beloslava, Merudia, Boyana Zhelyazkova, Vyara Ivanova, Dimitar Taradelicov, the jazz musicians from Metamorphosis and many others.

The circus has always been the core of Beglika Fest. Every day, within the festival there will be juggling and air acrobatics. With us there will also be puppeteers from “Male-Male” and “Igrachka-Plachka” groups, who will play theater for the youngest kids. Friki Fi is a juggler with his own fire show and a group of acrobats from Sofia will dance on stilts dressed in bright fairy costumes in the midst of the meadows.

"We go to nature to enjoy it and let it leave it in the same state as it was before we arrived so we could enjoy it for a longer time," says Benita Primo and recalls the Beglika Fest principles, which exclude the use of plastic utensils and the restriction of meat food as far as possible. And here is more from ecology and aesthetic education among nature:

“Years ago, when the first festival took place, it was aimed at rescuing two local peaks from gross attempts at interference on the part of private businesses. Subsequently, this goal was achieved, Benita Primo recalls. Another of the goals was to preserve the population of the wood grouse, which is very common in Europe but faced with extinction in Bulgaria. Many people spend the night outdoors here making bivouacs.

The dam is very calm and clean. Anyone who sees it wants to go back there again. But there are tourists who do not know how to behave in nature and leave behind heaps of rubbish, spoiling the water of the dam and the river, and with this pollution we lose animals and plants. I invite anyone who loves Goliam Beglik dam to take a sack for garbage with him and after their stay here is over, to collect their garbage and carry it away with them. For many Bulgarians it is a shame to transport garbage in their cars, but this is very important for the preservation of nature.”

English Rossitsa Petcova