For a second consecutive year, the Bulgarian town of Pernik will play host to the national festival for people with disabilities, scheduled for June 28-29. The common cause of the event is to help with the integration of people with disabilities, and to become an opportunity for them to establish closer ties with others sharing their plight.

The idea of the festival "came spontaneously", as organisers Anita Taralanska, head of the Strong Spirit union of disabled people in Pernik, and Georgi Georgiev, head of the Union for Disabled People in Western Region - Pernik, told The Sofia Echo.

"Admiring the strong will and dauntlessness of these people, we decided to do something special for them," Taralanska said. "They seem to never give up to the difficulties they encountered in life. We were delighted to discover that they were eager for an opportunity to show their talent, which is rarely offered to them," she said.

Organisers have put immense effort in attempting to repeat the success of last year's initiative and establish it as a tradition of the town, Taralanska added.

"I will sing traditional songs that were sung in Bulgarian cities in the beginning of the last century, together with my band of 14 people," Boyan Mitev, one of the participants in the festival, said to The Sofia Echo. "I am looking forward to the festival and trying to help with anything I can in the organisation. We have serious two- or three-hour rehearsals three times a week. We are sociable people and will surely make new friends," he said.

The festival for disabled people enjoys huge popularity, Taralanska said. The participants are around 600, which is three times more than last year. More than 200 people had to be denied participation due to lack of available places, organisers said.

The official ceremony for the opening of the festival will start at 9am on June 28, followed by various multi-genre performances. The audience can enjoy a colourful mixture of musical and dancing performances, recitals, poetry reading, acting, craftwork, and basket weaving. Visitors of the festival can also enjoy paintings done by talented people from all over Bulgaria, who have found a way to reveal their creativity despite their physical disabilities.

"I participated in last year's festival with the same group (as Boyan Mitev's), which is called I Live With A Song," Tsonka Pavlova said to The Sofia Echo. "We won gold prize last year. We preserved many happy memories and impressions from the festival, and we are organising this year's festival with enthusiasm. Last year, there were only people from Pernik region, but this year we are expecting participants from the whole country and we will meet many new friends," she said.