The "Spirit of Burgas" Festival, organized by MTV and the Municipality of Burgas was the first event of such a magnitude in Bulgaria. We present to you the experience of one of its guests, Emanuela Belovarsky, a digital artist and film-directing student, currently working for Saatchi&Saatchi, Bulgaria.

Day One

They called it "The Spirit of Burgas", and they knew exactly why. I always felt the moody blues hanging over my city like a grey stormcloud, but since I've been away, many things have changed. Two years pass like a lightning flash and I can now barely recognize my own hometown. I walk on familiar streets yet feel like a clueless tourist; the old joints we used to hang around are closed and vanished, so many new monuments, galleries and places to discover have popped up like mushrooms, the streets feel alive, music is constantly resounding in the sea garden... We took off quite early in the morning darkness to be able to make the most of friday. Sofia - Sozopol was a brilliant route when you have such wonderful friends headbanging to Smallman/Effloresce/10 000 days, and Izzy sleeping soundly in the back seat. Day one - from the beach to festive grounds the way is quite eventful. Our glasses are now empty and we're drunk with more joy than anything else. Every element in the puzzle is just right as the full moon rises and leaves a golden path over the Black Sea. We're humming looney tunes and walking in to submerge ourselves in waves of music. It's all about the music now - corrosions, dominions, mother Russia going down down down and temples of love...



Day Two
Time flies with very few hours of sleep. Our host Zdravko is extremely generous and lets us crash at his apartment. It's a bit far from the sea and I get to show the crowd around the city. Memories flash by fast as the intercity express, we take a few salty baths and off to Spirit grounds again. The second day brings jitters as someone special is preparing to spontaneously interview Asian Dub Foundation. Telephones don't stop ringing, we meet up with more friends, hug some more along the way. A few loved local bands are performing during ADF so we deliberately miss their last few songs to catch some love from elsewhere. Sound problematics ruin a few performances, but we're grateful for the entire orgianization: a packed program, clean toilets, abundant refreshments and ballerinas performing to salsa eurithmics. The full moon is eclipsed and we watch it almost completely darken up during Hyperqube's insane space beebop. Cosmic trips? Yep - as Smallman blow my head off at 5am and we drink for Ceco's newborn son Ioan.


Day Three

Zen. Salinger. A green minty liquid in our glasses and no questions asked. Ancient wise men said, if one thing happens only once, there's no guarantee that it will happen again, yet if it happens a second time, it is surely to happen a third time. Others say that every miracle lasts only three days... We in Burgas say that whatever happens in Morska, stays in Morska. The afternoon was dedicated to evaluating each others' dreams during the previous nights. Nightmares, blessings, confessions, thoughts, laughter, gin, experiences - just randomly served at the improvised table. I love watching people open up slice by slice, like onions peeling out slowly. This is the first summer in Burgas that I haven't been bit by a single mosquito (and I was always fresh supper before), possibly because it ain't blood anymore flowing in me... Night 3 was to be our dance night. I was thrilled with expecation for Mister Bonobo, and he knocked our sox off. Thankfully Bonbon performed my favorite Noctuary and I used this unique hour of the evening to fall in love with everyone on stage. Kosheen still makes my feet ache, it isn't easy dancing a full hour barefoot on the sand, crying "are you hungry for a little more than what you had before". She is smashing! We laughed a little bit on main stage as some band we find hilarious appeared for headliner (not even worth mentioning), and fell asleep like stones on the bed.

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