A weekend of festivities marked the official launch of Bansko’s summer season,  including the  traditional Between Three Mountains outdoor concert and folklore singing and dancing, as well as a sumptuous food festival.

Bansko’s winter season was particularly action-packed this year as the town hosted six national and three international skiing events, including the Balkan Biathlon Cup and the Women’s Alpine Skiing World Cup. But now Bansko, the doyen of ski resorts, is trying to relaunch itself as a possible summer destination, an alternative to the bustle of the Black Sea for those who prefer a more peaceful break.  

Nestled at 925m, between the Pirin, Rila and Rhodope Mountains, Bansko is equidistant (150km) from both Sofia and Plovdiv and just 60km from Blagoevgrad. Towering over the town is Pirin’s  majestic peak of Vihren at 2914m, snowcapped even in the hottest months. One of the area’s main attractions, the magnificent Pirin National Park, is home to 180 lakes and 87 peaks above 2500m as well as 113 caves, 159 different species of bird and 45 species of mammals.

Bansko has seen something of a building blitz in recent years. Investment in tourism during the period 2001/2006 amounted to more than 200 million leva, creating several thousand jobs in the tourism and construction sectors. More than 100 hotels have been built in the past two years alone, ranging from small family establishments to luxurious four-star complexes, creating a total capacity of 10 000 beds in the town. Bansko now has 462 restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs and 83 grocery shops.

Plans for the new season
At the official launch of the summer season on May 23, mayor Alexander Kravarov hosted a news conference at which he said that Bansko had enjoyed 60 per cent occupancy during the winter, a figure acclaimed by the panel as a success given the sharp economic downturn, and that 30 per cent occupancy - of Bansko’s 280 hotels - would be judged satisfactory in the summer.

Among the town’s most popular summer attractions is the International Jazz Festival. This year’s  festival, running between August 8 and August 13, will gather stars from all over the world,  including Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer.

Kravarov said that Bansko was also focusing on developing its  historical and eco tourism. But he was also carrying out more than four million leva worth of works on mountain paths and sports alleys as well as building two giant sports centres and new football grounds and tennis courts. Repairs were also being effected to the infrastructure in the old quarter of Sveta Troitsa as well as churches and museums.

The mayor said that they had an annual budget of 26 million leva, of which only six million comes from the state.
In response to a couple of critical questions from the press, Kravarov said that he and the municipality would try to persuade hotel owners to create more green areas around hotels. He denied responsibility for perceived overbuilding on the basis that private unregulated agricultural land had been sold to building contractors.

During the weekend, a delegation was shown around some of Bansko’s main attractions, including the Nikola Vaptsarov Museum - home of the famous anti-fascist poet murdered by Bulgaria’s fascist government during World War 2 - the Neofit Rilksi house (home to one of the most celebrated teachers and figures of the Bulgarian National Revival) and the Sveta Troitsa church.  

Many hotels were also shown to visitors during the weekend, including some exquisite guest houses offering rooms for as little as 20 leva a night in the summer.