First day of the 20th National Children's Book Festival in Sliven

This year, the National Children's Book Festival in Sliven celebrates its 20th anniversary. The festival was opened by the mayor of the city, Stefan Radev. "For 20 years, at the initiative of the Regional Library "Sava Dobroplodni", with the support of the Municipality of Sliven, the Regional Administration of Sliven, the Ministry of Culture, many publishers, sponsors, Sliven has been becoming the capital of children's books. Over the years, this unique festival for Bulgaria has not only established itself as a significant cultural event for our country, but has also gained international prestige and friends from abroad. During the three days of the festival program, many publishers, authors, illustrators will once again lead young readers into the wonderful world of children's books. Young talents will send their first creative messages. I believe that everyone will find something for themselves in the rich festival program"*

* quote from the website of the Municipality of Sliven (www.sliven.bg)

The official opening program was attended by children from the vocal formation "Sea Sands" and NUMSI "Pancho Vladigerov" in Burgas, acro ballet "Tiara" in Aytos and ballet "Barbie" in Sliven, vocal group "Slaveyche" at the 2nd Primary School "Hristo Botev" - Sliven, as well as young actors Ivan Stoyanov and Gabriela Yordanova.

The first day of the festival was filled with a rich and eventful program. Traditionally, a round table with international participation was held. This year the theme was "Balkan Children's Literatures and Their Distribution in Europe". Among the participants were Prof. Dr. Albert Benbasat, Vessela Flamburari, Nikola Raykov, Elitsa Dimitrova, Nikola Stoyanov and Aneta Furman (Germany), Kristina Dejo (Hungary), Martina Salhiova (Czech Republic), Diana Chuli (Albania) and others. The main focus of the topics was the difficulties and subtleties surrounding the publication of children's literature in Europe, Bulgarian authors working and living abroad and the real access and contact of children with books and their authors.

During this time, several book presentations by their authors were also held. Evgenia Voynova introduced the little guests to her 508 grams of love – “David”. The fairy master – Vesela Flamburari, was irresistible as always, and Kaloyan Zahariev presented his book “Treasures, Pistols and South Seas”, which was published by the “Gornata Zemya” publishing house last year.

Children from different schools in the city had the pleasure of personally meeting some of the most beloved children’s authors – Viktor Samuilov, Nikola Raykov, Angelina Zhekova, Kina Kadrev and Georgi Konstantinov.

Three exhibitions dedicated to illustration were also opened during the day.

The exhibition of Damyan Damyanov (last year's winner of the Konstantin Konstantinov National Award) was presented at the Dimitar Dobrovich Art Gallery. He won the prize with two books published in 2016 by the Ciela Publishing House - Gelsonimo in the Land of Liars and Favorite Christmas Stories. In the exhibition, visitors can also enjoy some of the artist's latest works: How Koleto Pankin Flew to Brazil, and Petya Ershov Didn't Believe It at All (List Publishing House, 2017), How Little Claus Became Santa Claus (Kolibri Publishing House, 2017) and Ghostly Gondola (Ciel Publishing House, 2018). The second exhibition was dedicated to Petar Stanimirov and the augmented reality tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung. The artist recently completed work on his fourth book, which was celebrated with an exhibition in the halls of the Union of Bulgarian Artists. Here in Sliven, guests can enjoy a rich series of the artist's illustrations and purchase the books published by the Kibea Publishing House.

And last but not least, there is the exhibition of the winners of the National Award "Konstantin Konstantinov" in the category "Illustrator" Ralitsa Manuilova, Spas Spasov, Yasen Gyuzelev, Petar Stanimirov, Boris Stoilov, Penko Gelev, Kostadin Kostadinov and Silvia Kaloyanova. The second floor of the "Orphan Wanderer" hall has actually become a retrospective catalog of the award, and once you get lost in the tales told by the artists... it's hard to leave.

The book market is also on the square in front of the city hall, and the festival is in full swing. We can’t wait to tell you who the winners of this year’s award are, but… tomorrow!

Text: Milena Radeva

Photos: Sliven Municipality, Maya Bocheva and Milena Radeva

(you can see the full photo album on our Facebook page)