The Bulgarian Festivals Association (BFA) launched a new festival calendar for Bulgaria. The first edition of the calendar is focused on the capital city – Sofia. The project is accomplished with the financial support of Sofia municipality’s programme Europe 2015 and is developed in a collaboration with CIOFF – Bulgaria. The main aim is to involve a maximum number of festivals to feature in the calendar, to optimise their information and to increase the visibility of the festivals and their accompanying events. A massive information campaign was done for the purpose. As a result over 30 festivals joined the calendar, completing an online survey. The gathered structured information can be found on the BFA website.

The main objectives of the calendar are:
 

1. to stimulate the development of partnerships for cooperation in order to disseminate and exchange of information between the various festivals in the country and abroad;
2. to coordinate the timing of the festivals in the capital, giving an opportunity to the organisers to easily discover the activities of their colleagues;
3. to create new opportunities for local and international contacts between festivals in Bulgaria and Europe;
4. to serve as a tool for closer collaboration between the cultural sector and the tourism; and,
5. to implement the practice of statistic measurement of festival data, etc.

The calendar will be regularly updated and will stay open for new festivals and as well as the general public.

BFA continues to work towards the development of festivals in Bulgaria, because it believes that culture is not a luxury but a necessity of daily life.

More information about BFA can be found at www.bfa.bg.