XX NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL

/SLIVEN, MAY 8-10, 2018/

Second day

 The second day of the XX National Children's Book Festival, May 9th, was again full of interesting events.

At 9.00 am in "Sava Dobroplodni" regional library continued the round table with international participation on topic: „Balkan children's literatures and their dissemination in Europe”.

At 9:00 am in Sava Dobroplodni Regional Library, a seminar on "Books, publishers, libraries and the protection of copyright" was held in reading room № 2. The event was moderated by the publisher Damyan Yakov. The second day of the National Children's Book Festival in Sliven started early morning in the, at 9:00 pm. The discussion about the latest issue of reprography and libraries has brought together more than 50 librarians from libraries from Sliven and Yambol region. The theme became akin because of the open letter, which 30 Bulgarian writers presented not only to the Ministry of Culture but also to the media.

At 10:00 am until 2:00 pm for the eleventh consecutive year, a National Children's Plain-Air of Drawing was held. This year's theme is "A day full of magic". Over 300 talented little artists aged 7 to 15 years took part in it from all over the country. The plain-air was held at Dimitar Dobrovich National Art School, Sava Dobroplodni Regional Library, III^rd Ivan Seliminski Primary School and United Children Complex in Sliven. The works of the children were judged by a professional jury headed by the prestigious Bulgarian artist Boris Stoilov.

On the second day of the festival in the Chamber Hall of the Drama Theater "St.Kirov" several premieres of new children's books were held.

At 9:00 a.m. the premiere of Nikolay Penchev's book "The Adventures of the Cowardly Gosh" started.

At 10.00 am was presented the book "The Fairy of Sugarbowl" by Katya Antonova.

At 11.00 am the premiere of the collection of stories "I waaaant. Stories of Adults", by the winners of the Konstantin Konstantinov National Award in the categories "For complete contribution " and "Author" in the period 2013-2017 was held. Rositsa Petrova - Vasileva is the compiler of the collection, while the cover was made by the artist Petar Stanimirov. In the collection their stories told the writers Angelina Zhekova, Bozhana Apostolova, Petya Kokudeva, Aneta Ducheva-Ferman, Rumen Ivanchev and Nikola Raykov. The illustrations were painted by the artists Boris Stoilov, Petar Stanimirov, Silvia Kaloyanova and Kostadin Kostadinov. Each of the authors presented briefly the story with which he was included in the collection, and the artists Peter Stanimirov, Boris Stoilov and Silvia Kaloyanova answered how they had managed to illustrate only one text.

The premiere of Bozhana Apostolova's book "Little Big Bozhana and the Happiest Christmas" which was held at 12: 00 in the chamber hall of "Stefan Kirov" Drama Theatre attracted great interest. Together with the writer Bozhana Apostolova, her granddaughter Bozhana Manolova who inspired the writing of the series "Little Bozhana" also attended the meeting.

At 1:00 pm in the chamber hall of "Stefan Kirov" State Theater the premiere of Petya Kokudeva’s book "Lupo and Tumba" was held.

The program on the second day of the festival offered participants and guests more interesting events:

At 11:00 am, an entertaining game "Tell me my favorite poem" was held at the Open Stage of 1 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd., and from 11:30 the performance of the Trio Theater "Here, there and everywhere" was presented.

From 3:00 to 4:00 pm at Mustang Pastry Shop a creative workshop "Mask and Makeup for our favourite Carnival" was held. The children who participated in the carnival, had to their carnival costume a free make-up.

At 4.30pm on "Tsar Osvoboditel" Blvd. from the square in front of the building of NTS to DT "St.Kirov" passed a colorful carnival procession. The actors from "Fireter - the theater of fire and shadows" and more than 350 students from different schools in Sliven, as well as children-guests of the festival, took part in the color carnival. The carnival procession was led by majorette ensembles at Vocational School "P.K. Yavorov", XI Primary School "K. Konstantinov",XII Elementary School "Elena Bagryana" and Professional High School of Economics “Prof. D. Tabakov” and Youth Brass Band – Botevgrad. Special jury awarded winners for the most original costume.

At 4:50 pm the carnival was welcomed in front of Sliven Municipality by the patron of the festival, Mrs. Tsveta Karayancheva, members of the Organizing Committee of the festival and guests.

 At 5.30 pm on the big stage at Stefan Kirov Drama Theater began a gala concert-spectacle dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the festival. At the beginning of the show a brief retrospection was made about the achievements of the festival over the years and the merits of the people with the greatest contribution to its development over the years were taken into account.

The President of the 44th National Assembly and Patron of the Festival – Mrs. Tsveta Karayancheva addressed the organizers and guests of the festival. A special video address to the participants and guests of the festival by the commissioner, Maria Gabriel was also presented.

For her support for the 20th anniversary edition of the festival Mrs. Tsveta Karayancheva received a replica of the sculpture of Konstantin Konstantinov National Prize, which was handed to her by the chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Twelfth National Children's Book Festival, the mayor of Sliven Municipality Mr. Stefan Radev.

There are many friends and followers of the festival, who over the years have supported the realization of its goals and to which its organizers express their gratitude. But on the occasion of the jubilee with honorary diploma and jubilee sculpture were awarded those persons and institutions that have contributed most to the organization and the festival, and these are: the patrons of various editions of the festival - Mrs. Zorka Parvanova, Mrs. Margarita Popova, Prof. Vezhdi Rashidov, Mrs. Desislava Taneva, Mrs. Maria Gabriel; the teams of the Ministry of Culture and the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad for the last twenty years; the chairmen of the organizing committees of various editions of the festival Radostin Koychev, Ivan Slavov, Yordan Lechkov, Kolyo Milev, Stefan Radev, the long-standing member of the organizing committee of the festival Dora Eskidarova, the long-standing chairman of the National jury for the nomination of the winners of the National Prize Konstantin Konstantinov - Mr. Igor Chipev, the publishers Bozhana Apostolova, Velislav Velislavov, Damyan Yakov, Lyubomir Rusanov, Stoyo Vartolomeev, the painters Peter Stanimirov and Boris Stoilov, the President of BLIA, Mrs. Snezhana Yaneva, the long-time friend of the festival - the director of the oldest literary festival in Europe - Zamevi dece Igre - Novi Sad - Mr. Dushan Djurdjev. Without their support, the festival would not reach its current scope and achieve its goals. The awards were presented by the mayor of the Municipality of Sliven Stefan Radev and by Rositsa Petrova - Vasileva - an inspirer and organizer of the festival.

Mrs. Rositsa Petrova-Vasileva - Director of Sava Dobroplodni Regional Library, was honored the honorary sign and diploma of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad for her contribution, idea and initiative for the organization and holding of the National Children's Book Festival - the unique cultural event.

For its purposeful activity of popularizing the children's book and stimulating children's reading, and on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the National Children's Book Festival, Sava Dobroplodni Regional Library was awarded an honorary sign by the Ministry of Culture / a seal by Simeon the Great and a diploma. The prize was presented to Rositsa Petrova-Vasileva, the Regional Library Director, by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mrs. Amelia Gesheva.

  After the solemn part a concert performance with the actors Alexandra Surchadzhieva and Nencho Ilchev, the young actors Stoyan Velichkov, Tsveta Milenkova and Martin Yordanov from National School of Music and Performing Arts "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov" - Bourgas, ballet troupe from National School of Music and Performing Arts "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov"- Bourgas, performers from the Sports Dance Club "Tuida"- Sliven, the young singers Gala Boteva from Sevlievo and Gabriela Yordanova and Ivan Stoyanov - graduates of National School of Music and Performing Arts "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov"- Bourgas, Vocal studios "Pink World" - Stara Zagora, graduates of National School for Folklore Arts "Philip Kutev" - Kotel took place. At the end of the show an official ceremony for awarding Konstantin Konstantinov National Award for contribution to the children's book publishing for 2018 in the categories - for entire contribution, for an author, for an illustrator, for a publishing house was held. The award for "All Contribution" category to Bozhana Apostolova was handed by the Patron of the festival, Mrs. Tsveta Karayancheva – President of the 44th National Assembly of Bulgaria, Mr. Stefan Radev - Mayor of Sliven Municipality and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the festival handed in Maya Bocheva's prize in the category "Illustrator" and Mrs. Amelia Gesheva, Deputy Minister of Culture, awarded the award to Asen Sirakov in category "Author".