site.bta11th Folklore Festival in Munich Opens

Speaking at the opening of the 11th travelling Bulgarian folklore festival titled "Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance" in Munich on Friday, Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev said that when Bulgarians from around the world return to Bulgaria, including through their dances, they have something even stronger connecting them to their country - their love for the homeland.

"BTA's coverage is growing ever larger, with more than 9,000 news reports about Bulgarians around the world in 2025 and 111 folk ensembles from the Munich gathering featured so far," he said.

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is the official media partner of the event, which is taking place at BMW Park in Munich on May 15-17.

Valchev added that since March 1, BTA had published profiles of 111 folk ensembles of Bulgarians from 19 countries out of a total of 120 groups from 21 countries participating in the 11th edition of the travelling folklore festival in Munich, and would continue presenting the remaining groups.

The coverage was provided by the editors of BG World, specializing in news about Bulgarians abroad: Iva Vatashka, Yoana Krasteva and Valeria Skorich. Vatashka is covering the Munich event on site, while cameraman Emil Alexandrov is filming it, with their materials available free of charge to all media outlets with attribution to BTA, Valchev said.

By comparison, ahead of the previous gathering in Lyon, BTA featured 82 of the 106 participating ensembles from 18 countries. This year, the presentations of the folk groups were also published in BTA's English-language news service in an effort to make Bulgarians more visible in the countries where they live. The news agency also presented the festival's special guests and the accompanying travelling photo exhibition titled "Bosilegrad Before and Now 1 and 2". The articles were published in Bulgarian- and English-language sections, with dedicated banners directing readers to all news related to the festival.

In its permanent BG World section, BTA has been covering Bulgarians abroad for five years in a row, with more than 9,315 stories in 2025, over 20% more than the nearly 8,000 published in 2024. Around 300 news items were published in 2021 when the section was launched, Valchev said.

BTA is planning another World Meeting of Bulgarian Media this year, with the 21st edition to take place in Hungary on the feast day of the patron saint of the Bulgarian people, St John of Rila, whose relics were once kept there.

Last year, on May 24, the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture, and Slavic Literature, BTA brought together for the 20th time Bulgarian-language media outlets from 25 countries at its annual world meeting. "In this way, BTA serves as a platform not only linking Bulgarians abroad with Bulgaria, but also connecting Bulgarians from different countries with one another," Valchev said.

This year's festival Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance is another such a platform. It is taking place in the country that is home to around one fifth of all Bulgarians living abroad, assuming their total number exceeds 2 million. According to official 2024 statistics, nearly 450,000 people from Bulgaria live in Germany, including more than 50,000 in Bavaria alone, with 15,000 in Munich, and a similar number in neighbouring Baden-Wurttemberg, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Consulate General in Munich.

According to Valchev, Bulgarians in Germany set an example of actively preserving Bulgarian identity through their numerous folk dance and choir ensembles, as well as associations, schools and churches.

"I will repeat what I told you last year at the gathering in Lyon: Bulgarians in Bulgaria need Bulgarians abroad and their children. We need your knowledge and experience, which, of course, you can share with us from the countries where you live," Valchev said.

“BTA's news coverage can encourage you when you see more clearly the changes in Bulgaria, which is now not only part of the EU, but also border-free within Schengen and using the euro, as here in Germany, with inscriptions in Cyrillic as the EU's third official alphabet - one of Bulgaria's greatest contributions to Europe over the 14 centuries of Bulgarian statehood. Germans are also coming not only as tourists, but to work or study at universities in Bulgaria, such as the 1,532 students that place Germany fourth after Greece, the UK and Ukraine in terms of the number of undergraduate and doctoral students at Bulgarian universities, according to Ministry of Education and Science data for the 2024/2025 academic year, out of a total of 16,995 foreign citizens studying in Bulgaria," Valchev added.

He concluded his speech with "BTA loves you!"

The official guests at the opening included Bulgaria's Consul General in Munich Stefan Ionkov, Munich Deputy Mayor Verena Dietl,  Milena Dimitrova, the President's Secretary for Culture, Education, and Relations with Bulgarians Abroad, Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad Executive Director Raina Mandzhukova, and Western and Central European Metropolitan Anthony. 

This year's festival is themed "Libe Le, Libe Hubavo" and is hosted by the Munich-based Lazarka ensemble led by Plamen Petkov.

A record large number of participants will take the stage at the gathering, with 120 groups and individual performers included in the programme, Petkov told BTA.

Participants have arrived from 21 countries: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Malta, the US, South Africa, Netherlands, Cyprus, Greece, the UK, Ireland, Czechia, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Bulgaria.

The travelling festival, Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance, was created as a forum for amateur Bulgarian folklore ensembles active outside Bulgaria. Since its launch in 2015, the festival has been hosted in several European cities, reflecting the growing network of Bulgarian cultural communities abroad and their efforts to preserve national traditions through music and dance.

Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance is an event organized by and for amateur folklore groups performing outside Bulgaria. The festival was initiated by the Ot Izvora group in Lyon, which hosted both the inaugural edition in 2015 and the 10th edition in 2025. Over the years, the festival has been held in Montpellier (2016), Gandia (2017), Milan (2018), La Nucia (2019), Verona (2020), Copenhagen (2022), Prague (2023) and Palma de Mallorca (2024).

In the lead-up to the event, BTA featured participating groups and related coverage through its BG World section, including English-language reports, and is providing on-site reporting throughout the three festival days in Munich.

Bulgarian Communities in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg maintain strong cultural presence

Bulgarian communities in the German federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg continue to expand their cultural, educational and religious activities, supported by a growing diaspora and an active network of organizations.

According to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics, 53,891 Bulgarian citizens were living in Bavaria as of December 31, 2024, accounting for 2.6% of all foreign nationals in the province. In Munich alone, the Bulgarian community numbers 14,561 people, according to the city’s statistical office.

The Bulgarian presence in Bavaria includes a wide network of Sunday schools, folklore ensembles, cultural associations and church communities. Bulgarian schools operate in Munich, Regensburg, Straubing, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Landshut, Schweinfurt and Neumarkt, helping preserve Bulgarian language and traditions among younger generations.

A number of Bulgarian folklore groups are also active across the province, particularly in Munich and Augsburg, contributing to the visibility of Bulgarian culture through music and dance performances. Cultural and academic organizations based in Munich further support community life and integration.

Bulgarian Orthodox church communities have also been established in Munich, Nuremberg and Regensburg. In March 2026, a Bulgarian-language Holy Liturgy was celebrated for the first time in the city of Landshut as part of a newly formed church mission.

In neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg, official statistics show that 51,145 Bulgarian citizens were residing in the province at the end of 2024. Of them, approximately 47,000 were born outside Germany, while more than 4,000 were born in the country.

The Bulgarian community in Baden-Wuerttemberg likewise maintains an extensive network of educational and cultural institutions. Bulgarian schools operate in cities including Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Tübingen, Freiburg, Stuttgart and Konstanz.

Folklore dance groups and cultural organizations across the province organize events promoting Bulgarian traditions and community engagement, while Bulgarian student associations remain active in university centers such as Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Mannheim.

Bulgarian Orthodox church communities are also established in Stuttgart and Mannheim, serving as important spiritual and cultural centers for the diaspora.