Participants, friends and guests from Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria expect the International Children's Easter Festival in Bosilegrad, which has become a tradition for the Western Outlands. The forum has taken place every year since its start back in 1994. In the past two years the festival was mostly held online, so organizer and chairman of the Bulgarian association GLAS, Aleksandar Dimitrov, welcomes the 29th edition of the festival and the Orthodox Easter with great excitement:

"I have always associated Easter with this festival and all editions are extremely dear to my heart. It has become a part of me and I am a little sad that there were no such events when I was a child. This is an event entirely aimed at children and teenagers,” Aleksandar Dimitrov told Radio Bulgaria. “It is good to mention that our festival has become an example for other municipalities in Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia, which started to organize similar ones. There are already seven or eight festivals, including those in Blagoevgrad, Radnevo, Tsaribrod, Bitola, Kumanovo, Vranya, Surdulica, but we have our nearly 30-year-long tradition, which should not be underestimated."

Bosilegrad is hospitable and open city and the citizens are ready to help and shelter refugees from Ukraine in their homes, Aleksandar Dimitrov has told us. According to him, there were still no refugees in Bosilegrad but the topic of Ukraine will be leading during the festival days from Good Friday to Easter Monday.

“This year's motto of the festival is ‘No to War’. We always use this event to draw attention to problems that are alarming. We also do it now because we hope the war will end as soon as possible," the organizer of the Easter Festival of Bulgarians in Bosilegrad says.

In addition to competitions for the strongest, best painted and most original Easter egg, the hosts have prepared a rich music program with the participation of students of a music center in Sofia, the Sofia Folk Dance Ensemble of the National Community Center "Vitosha – 1951 ”, as well as students from the Music School in Blagoevgrad. Antoaneta Tsoneva, Chairwoman of the National Assembly Committee on Bulgarians Abroad and Asim Ademov, MEP, have also been invited as special guests to the Easter Festival.

English: Alexander Markov