All About
Ritual Gatherings
Ritual Gatherings Festival is an intimate beach festival that stands as a beacon of unity and creativity in the heart of a dreamy summer oasis. Set against the backdrop of incredible views, our friendly gatherings offers more than just good times; it’s a carefully curated experience where you can find connection, meaning and purpose. A place where every moment is infused with the spirit of friendship and the joy of discovery.
As you step into our enchanting realm, you’re not just attending an event, you’re becoming part of a community, a family. And no, that’s not just another festival using the buzz word. Our very founders are a brother and a sister and their life-long best friends, who live to meet and chat to as many of their guests as possible, so when we say family we actually do mean it.
Our journey
Our journey began on a hot summer afternoon in the magical city of Barcelona. A handful of close friend with a dream came together to connect like-minded people and their passions through a well curated experience. After a number of private events, rooftop parties, art exhibitions and specially curated dinner gatherings across Barcelona, Bulgaria and Tulum, the concept grew into a boutique festival that takes place on the picturesque Cape Akra on the Southern Bulgarian Coast.
Ethos
Our philosophy is based on 5 pillars – nature, music, art, rituals and food – all fundamental components of the cultural identity of each individual and community. Through these five elements, Ritual Gatherings creates a space where we can all learn, play, listen, express, dance, laugh, support, create, participate and evolve together.
Holding the festival in an outdoor location in nature has always been key to integrating ecology into the event’s artistic program. From banning the use of single-use plastics at all our events, through beach cleans, forestation campaigns to discussions, workshops and diverse volunteer initiatives, the love of nature is at the heart of Ritual Gatherings.
Music is the very root of Ritual Gatherings. It is an essential element of cultural diversity and has the power to bring positive change in society. Music helps create a shared space in which people come together and boundaries dissolve. Our musical playground brings together a variety of genres like electronic, funk, ambient and others that are hard to define. We also organize small urban gatherings and workshops to connect producers, DJs and electronic music aficionados.
Music is the very root of Ritual Gatherings. It is an essential element of cultural diversity and has the power to bring positive change in society. Music helps create a shared space in which people come together and boundaries dissolve. Our musical playground brings together a variety of genres like electronic, funk, ambient and others that are hard to define. We also organize small urban gatherings and workshops to connect producers, DJs and electronic music aficionados.
Food is much more than what we have in our plate. It is a code of cultural identity, embedded deep inside us, that affects every aspect of our lives. A distinctive feature of the festival is the opening Ritual Dinner that brings everyone together around the table. Driven by the desire to explore food in depth as a cultural phenomenon, we also organize workshops, gastronomic events and discussions on sustainable nutrition and food cultivation.
We recognize rituals and traditions as a means of building bridges between different generations, communities and people. Each year, the festival selects several traditional rituals that are reinterpreted through contemporary art. The reinvented rituals are the highlight of the cultural program of the festival. Thus, we give the old rituals the opportunity to live a new life, refracted through the prism of modern life.
Timeline
The idea of Ritual Gatherings was born in 2015 in Barcelona, in a small circle of friends in an effort to celebrate their rich and diverse cultures and promote cultural inclusiveness.
In 2016 a series of events were organized in Barcelona and the Ritual Gatherings concept and community started to grow.
What started with a series of small musical events in 2015, grew into the very first Ritual Gatherings music festival on the southern Black Sea coast (Cape Chervenka) in 2017.
In 2018 the event reached one of the hotspots of the international electronic music scene – Tulum and the very first edition of Ritual Gatherings Tulum was held at Boa. During the summer of 2018 the second edition of Ritual Gatherings in Bulgaria was held, once again on Cape Chervenka.
2019 began with the second edition of Ritual Gatherings Tulum, however due to change in strategy, Ritual Gatherings festival was not carried out in Bulgaria that year. In late 2019 the Ritual Gatherings’ team decided to find a way to expand the concept of the festival and stumbled upon the opportunity for funding by the EEA grants.
It took 4 months, many work weekends and countless late night office meetings to develop a project proposal with the vision of what Ritual Gatherings could evolve into.
One year and a global pandemic later, days before Christmas 2020, an email landed in the Ritual Gatherings inbox announcing that the festival had received the support of the EEA grants and the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.
On the 8th of June 2021 the grant agreement between ASORI (Association for Social Responsibility and Development through Innovation) – the organization behind Ritual Gatherings – and the EEA grants was signed.
As of this day Ritual Gatherings officially grew into an interdisciplinary cultural festival for music, contemporary art, traditional rituals, culinary and hands-on environmental practices, comprised of a 2-day professional forum and 3-day festival to be held in 2022 in the heart of the Kamchiya natural reserve, between an endless sandy beach, a quiet river and a thick forest.
THE SOUND OF RITUAL
Music is in the core of Ritual Gatherings. Here music isn’t just heard, it’s felt and our residents take the utmost care to curate a meaningful and unified sonic journey.
The Foreigners
Faris and Sandro form a special symbiosis between their Eastern roots and their passion for art and technology, manifesting their self-expression through music. They’ve delivered quality production to labels such as Crosstown Rebels, AudioTonic, Submarine Vibes, Tenampa Recordings, Motek Music and Kindisch. Together with their partner Gemm, they established their passion project – Ritual Gatherings. A series of curated events, born in a small circle of friends, together in their passion for exploring the different shades of electronic music in an inclusive, family-like atmosphere.
GEMM
Shosho