Bulgaria's Pernik Hosts 25th Edition of Surva Masquerade Games
Culture | January 29, 2016, Friday // 11:04| views
Participants in last year's edition of the Surva masquerade games. Photo: BGNES
The 25th edition of the international festival of masquerade games Surva will take place in the Bulgarian city of Pernik between Friday and Sunday.
A total of 110 groups with a record number of 6400 participants are expected to attend the festival.
Nineteen of the groups will be from abroad, with participants coming from neighbouring Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Romania as well as from more distant and exotic lands.
For the first time in the history of the festival a group from Mali confirmed participation and it will present an African masquerade custom.
In previous editions of the festival, there have been groups from Japan and Egypt, Darik radio informs.
The festival is accompanied by a series of events, with a photo exhibition dedicated to Surva unveiled in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia.
Masks worn in different parts of the district of Pernik are exhibited in the local history museum, while the history of the festival is depicted in pictures and documents displayed in the state archive in Pernik.
The magic of the festival is portrayed in paintings exhibited in all galleries across the town, with the city decorated by pupils from the oldest school in the town.
The traditional scientific conference “Carnivals in masquerade” will be held on Friday.
This will be the 23rd conference in a row and it will focus on trends and specifics of the masquerade games in the Balkans and Europe from the ancient times to the present.
The workshop for masks also begins on Friday and it will demonstrate the process of making masks from skin, feathers and teeth for the duration of the festival.
The culmination of the festival is the torchlight procession on Friday, which will mark the official opening.
There will be also fireworks, a ritual dance around a bonfire and culinary show.
Among the guests of the masquerade is the President of the Federation of European Carnival Cities Henry Van der Kroon.
The Surova folk feast in the region of Pernik were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at the end of last year.
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