Pernik

Surva, the international festival of masquerade games, is held at Pernik at the end of January and is the largest gathering of its kind in the Balkans, drawing several thousand participants from across Bulgaria and from other countries, who parade through the town in the costumes and masks of their own local kukeri traditions: bells worn in belts around the waist, masks of fur, horn, feathers and carved wood, some several metres tall, and choreographed dances intended to drive out evil and bring a good year. The variety is the point, since each region has its own form. Outside the festival Pernik is a mining town with a museum in an old pit and a fortress on a hill above.

History

Late Neolithic finds, with the richest pottery collection of the central Balkans, show early settlement, and in the 4th century BC the Thracians built a fortress here, in the land of the Agrianes named by Thucydides. In the early 11th century Pernik was one of the strongest Bulgarian fortresses, the seat of the governor Krakra, who held it against the Byzantine emperor Basil II in 1004 and again in 1016 (Wikipedia, Pernik).

What you'll find

• Several thousand masked participants - the largest such gathering in the Balkans.
• Regional mask traditions side by side - each area with its own form.
• Belt bells and horned masks - the costumes and the noise they make.
• A mining museum in an old pit - the town's other subject.

When to go

Late January for Surva, which runs over a weekend and is the reason to come. A day. It is cold, crowded and loud. Outside the festival there is little in the town.

Before you go

The festival is in deep winter and standing outside all day is cold. Crowds are heavy and accommodation is in Sofia rather than Pernik. Outside the festival the town is industrial and depressed with little to see.

Nearby

Sofia is east; Tsari Mali Grad lies south.