Bulgaria is beautiful #8. WakeUp! Festival, Rhodope

Welcome to WakeЪп! (wakeup) Festival, which took place between the 6th - 9th of July 2017 in the footstool of Rhodope mountain. Тhis was definitely the most inspiring and spiritual festival I have been to. The organizers emphasized on lectures, practices and other fun/helpful activities, instead of famous musicians and crazy parties.

For example there was this so-called trolley.

You can see my friend Sashko, taking a ride in this video.

WakeЪп! is mostly dedicated to the Bulgarian spirit.


Those are restored embroideries by "Workshop Rodolybie" from old traditional costumes and some of them illustrate the "Elbetitsa" symbol, which I wrote about in this post. It turned out that another meaning behind it is "be happy", so no wonder it is all over the place. Next is another amazing example, this time with the Mother Goddess. Can you see the dance?

There was a lot of traditional music with horo - аround dance, which stands in the roots of our culture.




Play this video to hear the music and see dozens of people dancing like one whole organism.

I hope you did not get freaked out by the people with scary costumes. They are called Kukeri.


They used chanove (big bells) to scare the "evil spirits" away.

Here is how it goes.

Proof that they are just normal people.
Lets enjoy some more nice views .


Two lovebirds jumping together, holding hands. They were too cute not to be photographed.

This is how the main stage looked from above.

Another day, another show. This time it is by Cirque de la LyuLin


Things got very hot when it came time for the "Grande Finalle"!

They are the only ones in Bulgaria performing this trick. So BRAVO!.

I spent most of the days listening to lectures on spiritual subjects. Believe me, the name of the festival is not random. I feel more awakened, aware and elevated. Before I knew it, it was the last night of the festival.


On the day after the end of the program, we were still not in a big rush to go back. Here I am showing around the place with less tents and people.

Thank you so much for dropping by in this experience. I hope you join the fun next year! It will be great to have this post shared, so more people know about this event.

A part of me is still there.

If you enjoyed this trip, follow me for more. You can also check out the others in my sequence bulgariaisbeautiful.

Gabby~