The Kazanlak Rose Festival

The following are pictures from the Rose Festival, which took place this past June. The festival recognizes the importance of Rose oil production in this region of Bulgaria. The most important thing to know is that they drop rose oil from planes during the closing parade (a pleasant surprise for all on a hot summer day)!

Here are a few photos from the international folk festival, which coincides with the Rose festival. The Russian folk group (see the dancers in blue costumes) was great! The styles of the other groups were similar so they tended to run together, but the Russians were very different—combining what seemed like Bulgarian folk dancing with more fluid movements that were almost ballet like.







The next few photos were taken in a rose field outside of Kazanlak. I went with some other PCVs and JICA volunteers to take part in rose picking ritual and some traditional songs and dance. One of the funniest parts of the whole experience was that there was a bus full of Japanese tourists attending the event (I’m not very use to tourists being here but with the festival there was an influx of both Japanese and English—it was strange to say the very least). They all had matching visors on from a local hotel—it was odd but cute. I think there were more cameras there than people :)








The presentation of the queen was a bit intense (see below). There was a huge rose on stage that she emerged from following a ballet performance. As she was coming-out of the blossom, the stage filled with smoke, an entourage of little girls threw peddles at her feet, and rose oil was released into the air. Following the presentation the mayor spoke; as usual, his arrival on stage was preceded by academy award type music. The spectacle finished with a display of fireworks. It was a fun show but I preferred the rose rituals out in the fields—it was much more authentic.