The Reading Man Festival
- by anna
- 7 October, 2014
In the flashmob
I just have no words to tell you how proud I am of my home town of Burgas!
Of great importance to me is the fact that the municipality managed not only to become the recipients of several EU grants to use for the improvement of the city, but also did not to squander the money, as it happened in many other towns in Bulgaria. Burgas has for the third time received this year’s (2014) award for “The Best city to reside in in Bulgaria”
This was not only awarded for the improved appearance and civic performance of the city, but also for the events organised through the year, which make living in it a much better experience, than living anywhere else. The quality of the performances of the Burgas Opera and Ballet, the Symphonic Orchestra and those of the Adriana Budevska Theatre are well known not only in the country, but outside of it too. The Forklore Festival, which livens the city with its free performances and colourful dancing parades throughout it, Emil Chakurov Summer Festival of Opera, Ballet and Classical music, now attract dedicated fans form the city and the area, as well as foreign guests.
But on this occasion, I want to tell you about something unique –the Reading Man Festival, which took place in Burgas for the third time this summer – in June. And wouldn’t you say it is befitting for one the few (if not the only) countries in the world, which has a national holiday, celebrating the Slavonic alphabet, Bulgarian culture, literature and education to have a Festival of the Reading Man?
Supported by three sponsors only, including the Helikon Bookshops, Pro-Credit Bank and the Burgas Municipality, the Festival took place between the 12th and the 15th of June. Its partners were the Union of the Bulgarian Artists, the Goethe Institute and the National Academy of Art.
The reception in Helikon Burgas
The festival was opened in front of a large audience with an event on the Snail Stage in the Park, by the current Minister of Culture Peter Stoyanovitch and the Mayor of Burgas – Dimitur Nikolov. This year’s statuette of the Reading Man was awarded to the Senior Lecturer Dr George Lozanov, who became the Festival’s flamboyant ambassador of reading for the next year. It was nice to hear that Burgas was pronounced to be the capital of Reading People in Bulgaria and the festival was here to stay!
The now traditional flash mob, one of the most enjoyable parts of the Festival this year, included many more youngsters holding a book in their hands in order to participate, than in previous years. All participants were given a free tee-shirts with a slogan “I read every day! What about you?”, as well as hats. The flash-mob started in the centre of town and ended at the monument of the Burgas poet Hristo Fotev in the seaside park, where every participant was able to collect a page with one of his poems, dedicated to Burgas.
In comparison to the previous two editions, the 2014 one had the authors and their books presented not by
Nikolay Fenerski and the Buyabes fish soup
themselves, but by their enthusiastic readers. And this really made sense – one tends to believe the opinion of the ordinary person talking to other potential readers more!
Several competitions were part of this year’s festival. One was the essay competition, entitled “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Reading, which drew over 150 people. The photographic competition:Child in the World of Reading had over 140 participants. Awards were received by the best entries. The third competition, invited participants to send cooking recipes from books. This ended in the “Umbrella” restaurant in the seaside park, where the writer Nikolai Fenerski cooked fish soup for everyone present, based on a recipe form a book.
Food event in the “Chardura” Restaurant in the seaside park
In the evening of one of the days there was a reception in the Helikon bookshop in Burgas, where the staff delighted the guests with a selection of personally prepared appetizers and another competition, based on book titles, which was tremendous fun! It was won by the writer Zack Karabashliev.
During the festival, the Umbrella Restaurant and the Phoenix coffee shop delighted the festival guests with food and cakes, based on recipes from novels.
But as usual, the festival gusts were pleased to be able to meet and talk with many writers and poets: Georgi Danailov, the Englishman Christopher Buxton – semi-residentof Burgas, Radoslav Parushev, Boyko Lambovski, Mirella Ivanova, Hristo Karastoyanov, Plami Ralchev, Zahari Karabashliev, Nikolai Fenerski and Ljuben Dillov – son.
Christopher Buxton’s pre-launch presentation of the Bulgarian edition of his new children’s book,
Christopher Buxton presenting
which came out in the UK this March –“The Bossy Princess and the Seven Scallywags”, attracted an audience of young and old. The book’s Bulgarian translation, called „Седемте палавници и властната принцеса“came out in Bulgaria at the end of July.
Other book presentations, which attracted the audiences were these of the writers Radoslav Parushev with the book “From the inside”, Hristo Karastoyanov with his latest creation, based on the life and death of the Bulgarian Poet Geo Milev “One and the same night” and Palmi Ralchev with “Boxers and Casual Passers-by”. Interesting discussions followed each of the presentations and fans were able to buy a book and obtain an autograph from the author.
The audience for “The Bossy Princess…”
Other events, which attracted attention, included the presentation of Rumen Vassilev – the editor of Lira.bg on how to write a book review. Puppet shows and films, shown on the Snail stage in the park enchanted passers-by and guests. The German Foundation for Supporting Reading had a presentation on How to make Reading pleasurable to the Young.
I missed the ex-libris exhibition, but was very pleased to see the exhibition of Georgi Markov’s lithographies, illustrating the book Notes on Bulgarian Uprisings.
And besides the actual events, free books were given to people, who were reading at particular places in the Burgas park, which meant that there were a large number of readers there!. People reading on buses for the duration of the festival did not have to pay for a bus ticket!
What really amazed me was the final closing concert of the Reading Man Festival, featuring Milennita and The Funky Miracles! I had never even heard of Milennita, but, hey, the girl can sing jazz! It was the deserving end of several days, which made me proud again of my home city and its people.
The treats prepared by the Helikon staff for the reception