Spirit of Burgas Festival

Spirit of Burgas Festival

2 October, 2008 | 6.36AM

• Written by: GlobalPR
• Filed under: Music News : andy cato, kosheen

Spirit of Burgas was the first ever multigenre music festival to take place in Bulgaria. 

Blessed with beautiful weather and a party hungry crowd, Spirit of Burgas proved to be a weekend to remember for the city of Burgas.

The night flight to Burgas may not have been the best idea, but the sunrise in the distance was welcoming as we stepped out onto the tarmac. 

This was to set the precedent for the weekend which turned out to be the best fun I’ve had in ages. 

The tour guides are not that favourable towards Burgas, so I was pleasantly surprised with what was on offer and beg to differ. 

Yes, Burgas is an industrial city that has a port, but it is much more than that.

Burgas has charm and culture, with a central pedestrianised shopping street and plenty of cafes and restaurants to chill out with friends, and its own beach. What more could you ask for?

The main reason for being in Burgas was for the launch of new beach festival, Spirit of Burgas, and there was much anticipation in the city as it was the first ever multi-genre music festival of its kind in Bulgaria. 

Taking place in Burgas from 15-17 August 2008, Spirit of Burgas transformed the city beach into a melting pot of the best local and international talent. 

Attracting 28,000 people over three days, the festival included a diverse range of artists who performed on six different stages.

The setting was the city’s central beach, which was a beautiful location surrounded by picturesque woodland that was decorated with balloons and vibrant décor.

Kicking things off on the main stage on Friday were local favourites Gravity Co, Hot Club de Paris and the much anticipated Sisters of Mercy. 

While on the dance stage it was all about drum & bass with HMSU, Baron & Apache and El Hornet & MC Jakes.

“We loved the atmosphere and you could see that is affected the people here as we could see it in their faces.” Commented Gravity Co’s Nickolay Bakalov.

Over the next two nights the enthusiastic and up-for-it crowd were treated to performances from artists across all genres including; Asian Dub Foundation, Kosheen, Bonobo and Cradle of Filth.

With local promoters Metropolis whipping the crowd up into a frenzy and dancing on the beach till sunrise, with DJ’s Michel de Hey and Chris Liebing.

“You have sun and sea, rock and dance, punk and alternative, you meet different people and an amazing crowd. Spirit of Burgas has a different feel than other festivals because Bulgaria is different, so come and see for yourself next year,” enthused DJ Steven. 

The first edition of the festival was a huge success and orangisers were overwhelmed by the support of the media, sponsors and people of Burgas.

“It’s very difficult to bring a massive amount of people in the first year of a festival and I am happy that we had so many people in year one.

We also had good media support and a lot of individual journalists supporting us which was a pleasant surprise” commented event director Ivan Valkov.

The festival also provided a platform to showcase local Bulgarian talent giving them a chance to perform in front of national and international media and to meet artists from the international music scene.

Says Gravity Co’s Nikolay, “There are many bands that deserve to be showcased internationally and this is the perfect event for that.  There are a lot of talented people in Bulgaria with a lot of ideas and creativity.”

And he’s not wrong, as I felt really inspired by the local artists I met during my stay and I’m sure we’re going to be seeing a lot more local artists breaking through on the global music scene.

So it looks like Bulgaria is now well and truly on the worldwide festival map. This is an event not to be missed in 2009.

Check out www.spiritofburgas.com for more information.

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