The wealth of preserved traditions, melodies and colors in Razlog is exceptional. The “Pirin Pee” folk art festival is a unique experience, both for the participants and for the tourists.
“Pirin Pee” is a holiday in which thousands of performers from Southwestern Bulgaria traditionally take part and is a good occasion for family meetings in the beautiful “Predel” area, separating the two Pirin and Rila mountains.
Since its inception, the “Pirin Pee” festival has become a calling card of the Blagoevgrad region and is one of the largest forums in Bulgaria for interpreting tradition on stage. Within a few days, the meadows of the Predel area turn into a rich palette of music, dances and colors from our rich folklore treasury. The biggest manifestation of the people of the Pirin region is the festival “Pirin Sings”. The long-standing tradition continues today. People from different generations, different social, ethnic and professional groups find a field for expression here.
The first “Pirin Sings” was held on September 1 and 2 in 1962.
Pirin Sings..
The land, the beautiful southern Bulgarian land, on which Pirin, Rila and Rhodope mountains and 7 more of their sisters have always met, has another beauty – the people who have inhabited it for centuries. Folk art still exists today in the villages, it is alive and well in the cities of Southwestern Bulgaria. It is the source and lifeblood of its contemporary spiritual manifestations, which inspire self-confidence in its hectic everyday life and have a decisive role in preserving its national identity.
Who raises a voice over the silent Predel? Who takes up this song and raises it all the way to the mountain peaks? Who made beeches, mulberries and pines lower their tops, so that the song would freely arch wide and far…
Men sing, strong and proud, with hats, leaning against the sky of Pirin. The mountains sing. When did we hear them? Now, two years ago, at the previous, at the second, at the first festival… or since it has existed – the beautiful, soft, gentle, enchanting song..
Pirin sings! When else has the mountain accommodated such a large and colorful crowd in its snowy embrace? At the first, at the second, at the following, at the last fourteenth festival?
Oh my God, what an extravaganza of colors and songs, of flutes and conversations. Your soul is unblocked and, as if smeared with fragrant balm, it becomes quiet and surrenders to this magic called original folk art.
Pirin sings! Our hearts sing! It was like that with the first and the second, and it is like that with the last. Only, he who is not an appreciator of human beauty, only he will not understand and feel it. To leave the hard work, when everything is cracking and waiting for a human hand to touch it, to dig up grandmother’s chests, to dress up and come here to Predel. Here where the two sisters Rila and Pirin spread green carpets, so that our steps can resonate together with the songs, with the dances, with the flutes. Heart must, heart…
Pirin sings! … MOUNTAIN, PERIN, MOUNTAIN… Who first took up this song, and outlined it to become eternal?! Who doomed us to it, and even now, when is it sad and dear to our souls to always lean on it? Is it the mountain? Is it the walls? Is it the field? Or the people who inhabit both the mountain and the field. Don’t ask or demand an answer, just look, be happy, be proud that you exist, that you are here, that your roots – strong, tough, deeply rooted in this land of Pirin, from which strength and song, rhythm and colors, gushes. And beauty – our, Bulgarian beauty!
Pirin sings! The mountains sing! The people sing! The souls sing!