VIIth NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL – SLIVEN, MAY 9-11, 2005
A National Children’s Book Festival takes place traditionally every year at the beginning of May in Sliven. The Festival is organized by “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional Library and co-organizers are the Ministry of culture and tourism, the National book centre at the Ministry of culture and tourism, State agency for Bulgarians abroad, Regional administration -Sliven, Sliven municipality, Rotary club – Sliven, the greatest publishing houses, which publish books for children and other organizations.
The VIIth National Children’s Books Festival was carried out under the aegis of Mrs. Zorka Parvanova and the Minister of culture and tourism Ms. Nina Chilova. Guests of the Festival in the town at the footstep of the Blue Stones were many writers, publishers, illustrators, book distributors, and library specialists – people who make the contact between children and books possible and make the world of books interesting for children. There were also many foreign guests in Sliven /Russia, Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine, Sweden/ - writers, organizers of similar festivals and partners of the library on various projects.
The National Children’s Books Festival was opened on May 9 with a concert in “Stefan Kirov” Dramatic theatre. The program of the events in the first festival’s day was focused on: a literary competition “We love to read!”, an interurban quiz “European Union through children’s eyes”/ on a project of the Ministry of culture and tourism –“Regional cultural policy” department and “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional Library on the Communicative strategy of Bulgarian government for joining Bulgaria to the EU – with the participation of students from Yambol, Nova Zagora, Tvarditsa and Pomorie and Sliven, meetings with the writers Ljuben Petkov, Stanka Pencheva, Bojana Apostolova and writers from Bulgarian communities abroad Milorad Gerov and Elizabeta Georgieva - Serbia, Vladimir Kaloyanov – Ukraine/, opening an exhibition of children’s drawings, presentation of the “Golden feather” series of “Hermes” Publishing house, presentation of „Anthology of Serbian poetry for children”, a ceremony for awarding the participants-winners in the National literary competition and the competition for drawings on topic “Book, My Fairy!”, a concert.
The ceremony for awarding the participants-winners in the National literary competition and the competition for drawings on topic “Book, My Fairy!” in which took part more than 2000 children from Bulgaria and the Bulgarian communities abroad was the most expected event from children in the first day of the festival. The ceremony ended with a concert “It is fun to be with us”– a greeting for the participants and winners- with the participation of the actors Nencho Ilchev and Maya Bejanska.
The program of events of the second festival’s day included: a round table on topic “Modern literature for children and its readers – tendencies, problems, perspectives”, premieres of the books for children of Banko Bankov and Georgi Konstantinov, a meeting with the writer Tsoncho Rodev, a performance of the composer Haigashod Agassian, a meeting with the editorial staff of the popular students’ newspapers “Rikcho”, “Riki-high-school student” and “Riki- candidate- high-school student”, a carnival and a concert.
The round table took place in “May” hall and there their reports read: Mrs. M. Milanova /“St. Kliment Ohridski” Sofia University”/, Elizabeta Georgieva – a writer /Dimitrovgrad, Serbia/, Venera Atanasova /”Hermes” Publishing house/, Petya Alexandrova /a writer/, Dochka Petrova /a teacher/, Gorfy Chobane /a vice-director of the Town library of Pecs, Hungary/, Maya Dalgacheva /a writer/, Ivona Tacheva /Sofia Unversity/, Maria Nikolova /University for Library Informative Technologies, Sofia/, Boyan Lalov, Boyka Karachivieva /Technical University-Sofia/, Vihren Chernokojev, Rositsa Chernokojeva /Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, an Institute for literature /, Dimitriika Stefanova /”St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library/, Dimitar Bechev /Yambol/, Karl Lindgren /Sweden/.The guests from Moscow presented the International festival “Bibliobraz”, which is carried out under the aegis of Mrs. L. Putina.
An exhibition “The other book” of students of the National Arts Academy-Sofia, “Book and printing” department was exposed in “Sirak Skitnik” hall. There were exposed interesting book publishing projects which were presented on the International book fair in Leipzig last year.
There was a carnival procession on the main street in 4.30 p.m. with the participation of pupils from many Sliven schools, which was accompanied by the Garrison brass band. That attractive event was realized by the help of the brigadier-general Slaveev /a commander of “East” command/ and lieutenant-colonel K.Nikolov /a head of „Administrative” department in the command /.
The culmination of the festival’s program on the second day was the official concert-show. The National “Konstantin Konstantinov” prize was awarded for second year on the concert. It was established in 2004 by the Ministry of culture – National book centre, “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional Library, Sliven municipality and Rotary club-Sliven. The prize has been rewarded yearly since 2004 during the days of the Festival for contributions to book-publishing for children in the previous year. The prize consists of a plastic art sculpture, a diploma and money. Seifetin Shekerov – a young Sliven sculpture, sculptured the plastic art. Prizes were awarded in the following sections: a great award for lifelong achievements; a publishing house; a writer; an illustrator. Winners of the prize in 2005 were: Georgi Konstantinov -in “Lifelong achievements” section, Victor Samuilov -in “Author” section and two publishing houses were winners in “Publishing house” section–“Hermes” and “Janet-45” Publishing houses. There was a performance “With book all over the world” after the ceremony with the special participation of the actors Dimitar Rachkov and Maria Sapundjieva.
The third day of the festival was dedicated to the theatre for children. There were many performances for children: “The Swineherd” /based on the Andersen’s tale/ performed by Little puppet theatre „Slon” and “A Holiday at an unearthly hour” performed by “Vesel” theatre- Veliko Tarnovo.
The presentation of “Janet-45” Publishing house was an unforgettable holiday for children with the participation of Mrs. Bojana Apostolova – an owner of the publishing house, who presented her book for children “The man with the sky”. There also was a meeting with the writer Stefan Tsanev.
There were many presents and surprises for all the children who attended the events of the festival’s program supplied by the organizers, “Fjut”, “Janet-45”, “Hermes”, “Egmont Bulgaria” publishing houses, “Helicon” bookshops etc. “Fjut” Publishing house donated many books to children in Sliven kindergartens.
There was a book bazaar of the publishing houses which sold their book with reduction of their prices.
A record-breaking number of people from all over the country attended the events of the festival’s program in 2005. Mass media also were very interested in the festival. The festival was supported by many institutions and was very well sponsored.
The National Children’s Books Festival is a unique event in the cultural life of Bulgaria, which is an unforgettable experience every year because of the excitement of the meetings with writers, of the creative self devotion, of new ideas and the sincere children’s love and excitement and with the expectation of the next Festival!
