Sofia welcomed the New Yearwith a traditional New Year’s Eve concert Stage Under the Starts in Prince Alexander of Battenberg square after a two-year pause.

Dozens of people from Veliko Turnovo, and tourists from different towns with their children and their pets, welcomed the New Year by getting together in front of Tsarevets fortress in the city to start out on a 17-km. hike. The initiative, taking place for the 7^th year running, is the only one of its kind in the country. “It is the best way to start the new year – with physical activity, close to nature and surrounded by some wonderful people,” participants in the hike told BNR’s correspondent Zdravka Maslyankova.  

Thousands of people in Burgas welcomed the New Year in the city’s central square with the hits by the 1970s and 1980s disco legend Precious Wilson, BNR-Burgas reports. Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov and Precious Wilson did the 2023 countdown together, after which the Jamaican-born singer took the lead of the horo dance in the centre of the city, to the music of the Strandzha orchestra, with soloist Zhechka Slaninkova.

People living in Vratsa, and guests to the town celebrated the coming of the New Year in Vratsa's central square Hristo Botev. “The fact the square is overflowing is proof that, together, we have succeeded in reviving the tradition, and celebrating together,” Mayor Kalin Kamenov said.

On board the Bulgarian military research ship Saints Cyril and Methodius, which is on its way to Antarctica, cadets from the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy rang in the New Year by singing the national anthem of Bulgaria.

• Bulgarian research ship leaves for Antarctica
  

Photos: Victoria Petrova, BGNES, Zhoro Alexandrov