site.btaOpen Buzludzha Festival Gets Underway with Music, Digital Experiences

The sixth edition of the Open Buzludzha Festival opens Friday at Bulgaria's Buzludzha monument, featuring music performances, artistic workshops, digital experiences and DJ sets continuing until sunrise. The festival, organized by the Project Buzludzha Foundation, runs through August 16 under the motto "Feel the Future."

One of this year's highlights is a digital journey through a virtual model of the Buzludzha monument. Visitors can explore how the building looked in the past and how it appears today, hear stories from people connected with its history and choose possible projects for its future. The project was developed by the Project Buzludzha Foundation and Tornado Studios and has received an innovation award.

The programme also includes a new 3D mapping show, "Concrete Dreams," created by MP Studios. The projection will transform the monument's concrete facade into a stage combining reality and dream, with music and DJ sets continuing after midnight. A new feature this year, Sunrise Sessions, will accompany the first rays of the sun.

The opening day's programme includes 15 daytime activities, talks with the Project Buzludzha team and international experts, and a festival game with prizes. FineApple Beats will perform a Sunset Session, followed by a "space" parade to the monument, concerts by Trigaida and Mona, and electronic music sets by Scarabei (Sake), Pacho and Julieta Intergalactica.

According to Project Buzludzha founder architect Dora Ivanova, the festival's futuristic theme is reflected throughout its programme and its use of new technologies. She said the event also symbolically marks the beginning of the foundation's conservation project for the Buzludzha monument, carried out in cooperation with Kazanlak Municipality and the Stara Zagora Regional Administration.

Ivanova said the festival aims to demonstrate the monument's potential as a venue for culture and art and to show that Buzludzha can host cultural events throughout the year.