Bansko Overcrowded in the Summer

The mountain resort becomes a bustling place during the Rock, Jazz and folklore festivals. The foreign tourists mostly buy red waist-bands and hand-knitted socks

The people in the mountain resort of Bansko (Pirin Mountains, sotheastern Bulgaria) do not sit idle in the summer. They are well aware that they should turn their town into a resort, attractive for the tourist throughout the whole year. And they spare no efforts in pursuit of this goal.
"We organize different cultural and music events all the year round so as to attract Bulgarian and foreign tourists," Bansko Municipality Mayor Alaxander Kravarov says.

He is firmly convinced that the number of tourists, who visit Bansko in the summer, is getting lager every year. It is a well-known fact that the town sings and dances nonstop over four months every year and is about to become the Balkan music center.

The music events in the resort follow one after the other. The local people cannot take a rest from music, songs and dances. The folklore festival of the amateur songs and dances groups "Between Three Mountains" took place on May 21-22 in Bansko. But this was just the beginning. The whole town gathered at the traditional rock concert on July 23. What's coming now is the annual Jazz festival, which starts tomorrow and will last until the next Friday. The town will also host the traditional Annual Festival of the Authentic Macedonian Song, Pirin Folk.

"It is true that the influx of tourists to the town grows during the music festivals. "We can be proud of that even during the summer 50% of the 6,000 beds in the resort town are occupied," Head of the Bansko Tourist Business Association Yana Rahova says. After the winter season ended at the end of April, the accommodation prices went down by half.

Many foreign tourists come to Bansko to see the cultural monuments, which number more than 150.

English, Japanese and French tourists are amazed by the churches of Holy Trinity and the Assumption of Virgin Mary. They are also eager to visit the house-museums of Bulgarian poet Nikola Vaptsarov and Bulgarian chronicle writer, Orthodox monk Neophyte of Rila.

"When the concerts and festivals start, the town gets overcrowded, the guests sometimes outnumber the locals, people from Bansko say.
Now, many elderly grandmothers learnt to rock and swing on a par with their grandchildren.

In the main town square, some women sell hand-knitted and weaved clothing items. Retailers have decorated the adjacent buildings with these lively-colored clothes, which attract the attention of the passers-by. We have everything here - from socks and mittens to red waistbands, fur-hats, bags, fleecy rugs and blouses. Many of these items have been handmade by our mothers and grandmothers, but they look like brand new and are of high quality, shop-keepers say.

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