On behalf of the European Festivals Association (EFA), Biljana Zdravkovic, EFA Board member, President of the Serbian Festival Association (SEFA), took part in the Conference of the Bulgarian Festivals Association (BFA) on 2/3 November 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Vasil Dimitrov, Chairman of the BFA Board, and Yuriy Vulkovsky, BFA Executive Director, gathered a lot of Bulgarian festival managers and attracted the attention of public authorities and decision makers. A report by Biljana Zdravkovic. The timing for such an initiative was perfect. The Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria is introducing new intervention measures to overcome the problem deriving from the lack of public funds which directly provoked the reaction of festival managers. Thus, officials have met a powerful army of outstanding cultural operatives capable in formulating and presenting their models of further cultural development and clearly pointing out the importance of the festivals. Furthermore, Bulgaria is very serious about the 2019 European Capital of Culture (ECoC), and a lot of national cultural institutions (public and private likewise) and important individuals have been engaged in the national competition running between Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and other cities. Although the ECoC topic was not the main focus of the BFA conference, it is quite clear that Bulgaria is aware of the opportunity the title can bring and they are more than ready for the challenge. The main strands of the activities of the Bulgarian Festivals Association are concentrated around several tasks: • protection of festivals’ interests in communication with public authorities on the local, regional and national levels and improvement of conditions for future development of festivals in Bulgaria; • activities towards international cultural cooperation and creation of partnership between Bulgarian festivals and European and world festivals in general; • exchange of information on good practices between the festivals in the country – bulletins, workshops, conferences etc. Important public officials took part in the Opening and delivered speeches emphasising the importance of the BFA initiative, such as: Yordanka Fandukova, Mayor of Sofia; Mitko Todorov, Deputy Minister of Culture; and Nadia Zaharieva, Programmes for Arts and Culture Director, America for Bulgaria (main sponsor of the event). Topics discussed included: the Role of Festivals in Economic and Cultural Development of the Cities and Regions in Bulgaria and Europe; Mechanisms and Instruments of Cooperation between the Festivals and the Public Authorities at National Level (the same was discussed later on for the local level too); the European Festivals Association and the National Festival Associations; Presentation of the Research on Festivals conducted by the Observatory of Cultural Economics; as well as the challenges festivals in Bulgaria are facing and the role of the BFA. Among the panellists were numerous cultural professionals and public officials: Momchil Geogiev (Sofia Music Weeks Programme Director), Rumen Draganov (Institute of Analysis and Assessments in Tourism Director), Vassil Dimitrov (Co-creator and Chairman BFA Board), Yuriy Vulkovsky (BFA Executive Director), Vera Markova (Chief expert Directorate for Programming the EU funds, Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria), Lyubomir Kutin (Deputy Director Ruse State Opera), Asen Asenov (Founder Independent Platform for Contemporary Culture and Arts), Martin Kadinov (Director of ON! Fest), Diana Andreeva (Co-founder Observatory for Cultural Economics), Stefan Kitanov (Founder, Director and Producer Sofia International Film Festival), Iva Chavdarova (Director Ruse March Music Days), Nia Pushkarova (Initiator and Organiser Water Tower Festival), and Stefan Elenkov (Executive Director Spirit of Burgas Festival). Public authorities were represented by Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Deputy Mayor of Plovdiv, Mayor of Grabovo and Minicipality of Plovdiv – Head of the Directorate for Culture. Among foreign guests BFA could welcome: Ernst Woller (City of Vienna Counselor and Head of the Committee for Culture), Hugo De Greef (Advisor to the Minister of Culture of Flanders, Founding member European House for Culture, former EFA Secretary General, General Manager Bruges ECoC 2002), Peter Inkei (Director of the Budapest Observatory), and Biljana Zdravkovic (EFA Board Member, President Serbian Festivals Association, BEMUS Festival Executive Director). Together with Hugo De Greef, Biljana Zdravkovic had several opportunities to present EFA’s activities, especially collective membership and advantages of the huge EFA network, as well as the Atelier for Young Festival Managers. Foreign guests and BFA executives had the opportunity to meet other City of Sofia officials too: Elen Gerdzhikov, Chairman Municipality Council; Malina Edreva, Chairwoman City of Sofia Committee on Education, Culture, Science and Cultural Diversity; and Svetlana Lomeva, Executive Director Sofia Development Association (Sofia ECoC 2019). The following festivals have joined the BFA so far: Sofia Music Weeks; Water Tower Festival; Sofia International Film Festival; Sofia Jazz Peak; European Music Festival; Sofia Design Week; Sofia Architecture Week; Sofia Dance Week; Sofia Contemporary; ON! Fest; Sofia Rocks; Sofia Science Festival; International Triennial of Stage Poster Sofia; and “In the Palace”, International Short Film Festival, Balchik. The versatility of the BFA members and their openness for advanced networking attracted the attention of other festivals for the conference and one can expect new members very soon.