The magic of folk beliefs on Saint John’s Eve will be intertwined with the various arts during the next edition of the festival of tangible and intangible cultural heritage “White Nights of Razgrad”. By tradition, Razgrad Municipality and the Regional History Museum organize the Midsummer holidays – June 23 and 24.
The first festival evening is at the House Museums in Razgrad. At 7:30 p.m., the “Territory of the Word” begins in the “Stanka and Nikola Ikonomovi” house museum. The editor at “Persei” publishing house Plamen Totev will present the publication “The Secret of the Tree” – stories about Razgrad by the winner of the “Golden Pegasus” award Dimitar Petrov. Young Razgrad talents will also be involved – the singer Tekin Zekeriev and reciters from the Center for Student Technical and Scientific Creativity.
From 8:30 p.m., the Ananie Yavashov House Museum hosts “Return to the Past – The Other Yavashov”. Guests will see a parade of retro fashion costumes from the beginning of the last century. Prof. Rositsa Angelova PhD, head of the Department of “New and Recent History” in RHM – Razgrad, will present the Bulgarian-Latin botanical dictionary of Academician Ananie Yavashov from the museum’s fund and the photographic exhibition “Bio logical” of Maria Kaschieva PhD. The idea for the exhibition was inspired by the author’s scientific work on a project related to restoration activities in a rare natural habitat – “Ponto – Sarmatian steppes”, in the Northern Black Sea region. The combination between the science and the art of photography allows the use of light as a means of expression, with which to show a more beautiful and different plant world, in the context of the problems of biological diversity conservation.
Immediately after that, at 9:30 p.m., the “Enovian traditions and nicknames” and “The magic of traditions” presented by the Kapan Ensemble begin in the Ethnographic Museum. Also taking part in the festive program are the Tsar Kaloyan Folklore Ensemble, the Children’s Dance Studio “Kapanche” at the “Napredak” community center and the “Ilia Burnev” Music School at the “Razvitie” community center.
The finale of the first festival evening is in the courtyard of the “Dimitar Nenov” house museum, where from 10:30 p.m. the artists from the Theater and Music Center will transport us to the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A quartet from the Razgrad Philharmonic “Prof. Dimitar Nenov”, dancers from the Nazam Hikmet Stage and an actress from the theater troupe.
In all house museums, visitors will be welcomed with white jam or a glass of wormwood.
The second “white night” – June 24, Saturday, is on the territory of the “Abritus” Archaeological Reserve. From 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the Interactive Museum will be able to see two unique exhibits from the collection of the Historical Museum “Iskra” – Kazanlak: The Golden Mask of the Thracian King Teres from the 5th century BC. and the head from the bronze figure of the ruler of the Odris kingdom Seutus the Third from the 4th-3rd centuries BC.
The festival will end among the columns of the Peristyle building /Urbana villa/. At 9:30 p.m., the concert of several artists begins there: the ballerinas from the Ballet School at the “Razvitie” community center; Ivan Gaidarov from Razgrad will present his second author’s song, and the finale will be the fire dances of the “TEMP” group from Vratsa: parts of the performances “The Light of the Fire” and “Dionysian Ritual”.
