The old church building is crammed. The authoritative figure of the poet is towering above the audience on a stage placed just in front of the altar as he reads aloud his latest literary works. Silence and worshipful admiration fill the air.

“All of a sudden, a clear resonant child’s voice shouts out loud, “Mommy, is this God?”, and everybody bursts into laughter and vigorous applause,” Margarita Dimitrova, artistic director of Apollonia Arts Foundation, remembers famous Bulgarian poet Valeri Petrov’s poetry reading.

That happened 24 years ago on the first edition of what has now become a traditional arts feast held in Bulgaria’s seaside town of Sozopol. It has been named after the town’s ancient Greek name, Apollonia. 

Yet for another year, Sozopol will experience a period when holidaymakers’ idea of spending leisure time will be replaced with cultural tourism. The town will be host to many of Bulgaria’s talents at the annual arts festival Apollonia 2008, which will take place between August 31 and September 10.

A various programme of theatre premieres and musical performances, poetry readings, presentations of literary works issued over the past year, and a folklore ensemble will attempt to regenerate the artistic spirit of Sozopol. There will be more than 70 performances overall in the arts festival, many of which are premieres that have been specially created to participate in this summer’s edition of Apollonia.

Originating from an attempt of Bulgarian actors, artists and writers in the 1980s to protest against the strict regulations of the totalitarian regime extending as far as the field of art, and to burst the fetters of anachronistic dogma, Apollonia festival has turned into a tradition over the years.

Every year, musical performances are a vital part of the festival’s programme. Audiences can enjoy an exciting combination of piano and guitar recitals and flute, piano, cello, violin and viola chamber concerts. Bulgarian former Eurovision participants Elitsa Todorova, Stoyan Yankoulov, and clarinet player Stoyan Royanov have been invited for an open-air concert.

The richest programme in terms of the number of participants will be in the field of theatre performances.

Famous Bulgarian actor and producer Marius Kourkinski will present, after five years of withdrawal from the stage, his latest mono spectacle Сътресение (Convulsion). It was performed more than 100 times in 2007, and was subject of enormous interest on behalf of Bulgarian audiences throughout the country, struggling to get hold of scarce tickets. Based on three short stories by Bulgarian fiction writer Nikolai Haitov, the production penetrates with nostalgia and insight into the vanishing world of the Bulgarian village. The production can be seen for the last time on stage at Apollonia 2008.

Another accent in the theatre programme of the festival will be director Yavor Gurdev’s Valentine’s Day, a play by Ivan Viripaev, written as a postscript of another production, Valentin and Valentina. Despite being a debutant in film directing, Gurdev recently won the Silver George Award for best director at the 30th International Film Festival in Moscow for his first feature-length film Дзифт (Zift).

The list of must-sees continues, but does not end, with Krikor Azaryan’s production Чайка (Seagull) after the eponymous four-act comedy by Russian playwright Anton P. Chekhov. In the light of present-day problems, the eternally relevant themes of love, ambition, and lost hopes reverberate in Azaryan’s Seagull, distinguished on the International Theatre Day on March 27 2008 with awards for best production and producer.

And if the loop of theatre art turns out to be insufficient to captivate the attention of the audience, a folk dancing show entitled Бежанци (Refugees), produced by famous choreographer Neshka Robeva will carry spectators away to the distant exotic Argentina. Imagine the 17th century with floods of Balkan refugees, leaving behind their families and homes to take on the challenging route to Argentina, searching for wealth. The interweaving of their life experiences and faiths is a central theme in the spectacle, which has been rehearsed and performed for more than a year.

Amid the singing, tango dancing and outbursts of fake joy trying to diminish the nostalgia, the refugees who crowd the outskirts of Buenos Aires sometimes remember their homelands, and Argentinean tango dominating the show mixes vividly with Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian and Jewish dancing motives.