Festival Italiano in Bulgaria 2016: Music, Cinema, Cuisine and Much More

The Italian Festival in Bulgaria begins on Tuesday, May 17, with a range of cinema, theater, food and trade events to offer “the best to represent Italy”, organizers have said.

Over a period of more than two months, the series of cultural, economic and gastronomic events will be “a definite proof that Italy's presence in Bulgaria is on the rise and that Bulgaria's presence in Italy is also growing," Italy's Ambassador to Bulgaria, Marco Conticelli, has said at a press conference bringing together the Italian institutions active in the country, all of them being involved in the festival.

This year's 12^th edition of the festival offers a rich program “in line with the forthcoming European Captial of Culture in 2019 for which an Italian and Bulgarian cities were selected,” Mr Conticelli has said.

Bulgaria's second-biggest city Plovdiv and the Italian city of Matera will both be European Capitals of Culture in 2019.

The Dream, a photographic exhibition by Fabio Bucciarelli dedicated to refugees, at Photosynthesis gallery, is the first event to mark the beginning of the festival and will be open from May 17 to June 14.

The festival is co-organized by the Italian Embassy, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Trade Agency, Confindustria Bulgaria, and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria.

A festival of Italian cinema will be held between May 31 and June 06 with 10 movies representing the country's contemporary film industry. The occasion is the 60^th anniversary since the first David di Donatello award (dubbed “the Italian Oscar”) was handed out.

Separately, meetings will be organized with directors and producers from the country do possibilities for joint productions.

A conference on the restoration of historic buildings will also take place on May 30-31 bringing university lecturers, architects, world-leading repair companies from Italy.

Italian cuisine will also be featured, with gastronomic events such as food and wine tasting, but also two courses. Of the latter, one will be dedicated to regional cuisine, while the other will target people with mental disabilities.

Part of the food and drinks introduced to the public during the festival will be new products, Cinzia Bruno, who heads ICE – Bulgaria, said during the press conference. The events will also help meet Italian companies with Bulgarian distributors and importers.

From June 14 to July 25, an exhibition of children's book illustrations will be on display that was already shown in Madrid and Berlin and subsequently will be in Beijing. It includes 60 works of 18 renowned Italian illustrators.

Moving beyond art and culture, Confindustria Bulgaria will host a conference dedicated to foreign investment promotion in cooperation with the London School of Economics and with the participation of Italian businesses.

Novinite will give more details about different events within the program in the following days.

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