Spicy means culture and Alexander Kyurkchiev - Sando, founder of a chilli pepper farm near Sofia and the first chilli pepper museum in this country, is sure of this. For the second year in a row he is organizing the Sofia Chilli Fest in the village of Lozen near the city. The event is planned for two consecutive weekends - on December 7 and 8 and on December 14 and 15 and is a spicy alternative to the Christmas markets with sausages and wine.

The first edition of the festival

"The first festival was very successful. Now we will concentrate on the creative part," says the organizer of the event Alexander Kyurkchiev - Sando in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.

This year, the big brands in the food industry will participate in the festival and there will be a strong presence of craft products. There will be interesting workshops and a contest for eating chilli peppers.

"We have focused on events for children and in addition to the children's workshops, we will also have a performance of ‘The Snow Queen’ by a visiting children's theater in the program. We also offer a lot of tastings. Many of our exhibitors are farms and craft producers and in addition to offering their products, they also do workshops. For example, I will personally have a workshop on how to plant chilli peppers because now is the right time to plant their seeds. We grow 140 varieties of chilli peppers – small, large and from different geographical areas of the world. We have information boards that tell about chilli peppers – what they are, where they come from, their history. But also what the health benefits are, as chilli peppers are superfood," Alexander Kyurkchiev – Sando says.

If you want to try spicy mulled wine or the traditional for the Balkans winter mulled brandy, but also slightly spicy, then the village of Lozen is your place for the weekend.

Compiled by Vesela Krasteva

Photos: Facebook /Sofia Chilli Fest, Facebook /Chilli Hills Farm