The Ritual Gatherings music and contemporary art festival brings artists from 6 countries to Kamchia beach.

This year the Ritual Gatherings festival is preparing a unique 3-day July Morning experience on the beach, at the mouth of the Kamchia River. The program includes a variety of musical styles and world names such as Crazy P, Axel Boman, Traumer, S.A.M., DJ Holographic, and the local scene will be represented by some of the most interesting artists in the country - The Foreigners - founders of the festival, Garo, Stephen Popov and many more. In the earlier hours of the three nights, live bands such as Trombobby&C-mo and Their Only Friends, Ropotamo Live and Ivan Shopov ft. Nikobo will also perform. The festival also has a rich daytime program - an exhibition of contemporary Bulgarian art on the beach, discussions, workshops on spiritual practices, yoga and activities for children.

Today Ritual Gatherings also released the film for the festival, which carries an important message about the many faces of each person and breaking down stereotypes about ourselves. The full "ALL OF US. TOGETHER" video was produced by Beardfrost Productions

Ritual Gatherings will showcase the first-ever national exhibition of contemporary beach art. The artistic program of the festival is curated by Martina Yordanova - Curator at the National Art Gallery and Director of the 25th Gabrovo Biennial. It will feature more than 20 artists from 6 countries with a strong focus on Bulgarian contemporary artists. Some of them are popular, who have reached the biggest galleries and international festivals, and another part are those that the Ritual Gatherings team gathered during their work in Kyustendil, Troyan and Shumen - artists who preserve local traditions and support local creativity and cultural life in these cities.

Key to the concept is the combination of contemporary art, traditional crafts and rituals. One of the highlights of the programme is Norwegian artist Tine Surel Lange, who recreates a traditional Norwegian ritual in a new, multimedia format, with a live musical performance on the viola. The integration of different cultures in the artistic programme and the selection of different art forms will contribute to conveying one of the main messages of Ritual Gatherings - to build continuity and present cultural diversity in its full glory.

A central role in the artistic programme is given precisely to the main stage, which is a huge installation supported by a light show specially designed for the festival by Swedish artist Filip Jakobsson and FlipZurd Studio. From the hills of northern Israel and the deep forests of Sweden, they create a symbiosis that translates forms and creatures from nature in a unique technique of wooden spiral combined with raw wood and natural materials. Using a spiral design, they build large functional architecture and modules that become huge wooden sculptures by day and living three-dimensional light paintings by night. Part of the scenography was exhibited at the Lunar Festival of Lights in Sofia from 6 to 9 May. Read our interview with them here.
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Ritual Gatherings: Traditional Rituals and Interactive Contemporary Art - Mechanisms for Building Communities and Achieving Sustainable Cultural Ecosystems” (Project BGCULTURE-2.001-0117-C01) is implemented with the financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Financial Mechanism to the amount of EUR 199,984. The project is part of the OP “Cultural Entrepreneurship, Heritage and Cooperation” Result 2 “Improved access to arts and culture”.
www.eeagrants.bg