site.btaOver 140 Children Take Part in Bulgarian Spring 2026 International Folklore Festival in Taraclia

More than 140 children from 12 educational institutions in the Taraclia District in Moldova performed 19 Bulgarian folk songs and dances at the second edition of the Bulgarian Spring - 2026 International Children’s Folklore Festival, held at the Stepan Tanov House of Culture on Wednesday.

The programme also featured online participants from the village of Parcani in Moldova, the city of Bratislava in Slovakia and the village of Kalanchak in Ukraine.

The forum aimed to support children’s folklore creativity and to promote Bulgarian folk traditions among the youngest. Among the festival’s objectives were encouraging children’s creative abilities, preserving the Bulgarian language and culture among communities outside Bulgaria, and developing cultural cooperation between educational institutions and creative groups from different countries.

The festival was opened by Taraclia Regional Education Department Head Lilia Sarsaman. “This festival is not just a stage and not just a performance. It is the first step for our children into the great world of art, Bulgarian dance and Bulgarian song,” Sarsaman said.

Bulgaria's Ambassador to Moldova Maya Dobreva noted in a congratulatory address, read by the event host, that the festival is a vivid testament to the vitality of the Bulgarian spirit beyond the borders of the homeland and to the efforts of the Bulgarian community to preserve and pass on to the younger generation the Bulgarian language, traditions and cultural heritage.

The children presented a programme of Bulgarian folk songs and dances dedicated to spring, childhood and Bulgarian traditions. Among the most frequently performed dances were various versions of Bulgarian traditional dances rachenitsa and horo.

The festival was organised by the Taraclia Children’s Creativity Centre in partnership with the Taraclia Regional Education Department and the non-governmental organisation Perspektiva. The event was implemented with the support of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science under the Native Language and Culture Abroad Programme. An amount of EUR 1,380 was approved for the organisation of the event, according to the website of the Ministry.

This year’s festival motto was "From Taraclia to the World".