Sofia Breathes Festival Continues

I've had all week to post more photos from another Sofia Breathes Sunday, but time somehow got away with me, not to mention that now that the term is over, I am trying to catch up with friends, dance classes and random errands that I neglected before. Anyway, here I am... I meant to go to last week's festival day with some friends, but in the end they didn't feel like it. The thing is I love these kinds of events, so I went anyway and soaked up the energy and creativeness of all the arts and crafts on display.

Some crafters I already recognize from past festival days, but there were some new ones here, as well as some street performers that were quite entertaining.

This time the event was on Pirotska Str, right across from this beautiful building that has still not been restored properly. It used to be a bath house, and there is a mineral water spring close to it. In fact, quite a few music videos and photoshoots have been done here because it is such an interesting structure (just a side note).

The cool part about Sofia Breathes this year is that there are lots of things organized for kids, so if you are a parent, going to the festival would be a nice new thing to do with your kid and a way for the little ones to expend some of that endless energy they have.

These accessories below are really great; they are made of these old looking clocks and mechanisms that give them a vintage look. They had some really cool stuff for women, and even had some items for men that looked more masculine but still very unique.

Of course there was a multitude of stands featuring all kinds of unique dolls, clothes, and quilts.

These musicians were quite pleasant to listen to. I really like jazz, and listening to it on a summer evening outside seems like a really great night out to me.

The stand above had some cool displays that showed how animation is made, and it was popular among both the children and the adults.

These were two girls that gathered up quite the crowd with their silent performance. The giant soap bubbles were set out to fly above the crowd in the end, as kids chased them, and photographers went crazy photographing the performers. You can see one of them on the photo below. I took a photo of her in particular because she was shooting with a Mamiya that costs waay more than I can currently afford for a camera :).

Here is the second performer balancing a glass orb and doing all kinds of neat little tricks with it.

Until next time!

Sofia Breathes Festival

Another term of my MBA program is now officially over...whew! I basically spent last week working during the day and studying/writing projects like crazy, taking an exam on Thursday, submitting a PR plan on Saturday and a Consumer Behavior Research Project plan on Sunday morning, at which point I was able to let out a big sigh and crash on a sun lounger in the yard for a lazy couple of hours of reading. Fortunately or unfortunately I placed my sun lounger next to the lavender plants, and then I noticed that there were weeds around them, so I ended up harvesting the flowers and pulling out the weeds for the next couple of hours. I now have a very fragrant bouquet on my dining table, even if I used up my last vestiges of energy to putter around in the garden. Still, it was a great change from sitting in front of the computer; I was able to enjoy the warm weather and the greenery.

One of the reasons I pushed myself so hard with all the projects and papers for school was also the fact that this Sunday was one of the Sofia Breathes festival days, and I usually really enjoy those. This time the festival was on Angel Kunchev Str. and it was supposed to be sort of book themed, although in the end there were only a couple of book stands and a ton of crafts/jewelry/home decor stuff on sale. The cool part was that I actually saw a ton of people I know at the event, and I also ended up sticking around for a book signing by Georgi Gospodinov, one of the current well-known Bulgarian writers. I think I was even filmed by one of the TV networks while I was at the signing because I was close to the author when they were interviewing him (and they asked some cliched questions, let me tell you).

So, check out some of the stuff that was being sold at the festival (which also made me think that I should set up a stand for my jewelry next time). Sorry about the phone photos, but I was too lazy to carry my camera :)


This stuff is really cool - they are wallets, bags and all kinds of other cool items made by Zona Urbana from laminated pages of old newspapers, maps, music sheets and what not. They rummage for these old communist newspapers with ridiculous propaganda titles and make these really fun accessories out of them. Not only that, but each one is pretty unique; even if there are a few copies of one issue of a paper, I doubt that you will be able to find two items that are exactly the same. Zona Urbana's store is actually on Angel Kunchev Str., so feel free to stop by.

This is also a very neat idea that I have actually seen before - you take pages from a book or somebody else's poetry and you make it your own by blacking out some words and leaving others, so that you get a completely new poem. I love it. It is kind of like the concept of altered books, and I really like the fact that you could take a work that has a certain meaning and mix it up until it has a completely different meaning, like adding layers.

On and this is just a door, but it was so nostalgically pretty, that I couldn't resist snapping a photo.

Very interesting light fixture

And an English book bazaar