The National Lavender Festival will be held for the seventh time

The National Lavender Festival will be held for the seventh time in the village of Sredno Gradishte, Chirpan region, on 26 and 27 June 2021. The settlement is a traditional host of the celebration, as here, at the foot of Sredna Gora Mountain, some of the first experimental lavender plantations in Bulgaria were established. Yordanka Hristova will be the musical star of the celebration.

"The aim of the festival is to show respect for tradition and to celebrate the well-deserved position of Bulgaria as a world leader in the production of lavender oil for nearly 10 years now," said the director of the festival, Nina Girginova. Our country exports about 200 tons of high-quality lavender oil annually. France ranks second with an average yield of 40-50 tons.

„We want to promote lavender as a national symbol of our country, similar to the emblematic Damask Rose. The festival is dedicated to lavender producers and processors, as well as to all admirers of the aromatic plant,“ added Girginova. The honorary chair of the festival is the world-famous actor Stanislav Yanevski, known from the Harry Potter saga and one of the highest-grossing productions of Quentin Tarantino.

The Srednogorie edition of the celebration starts in the town of Chirpan on Friday, 25 June, with a lavender bazaar, a workshop for children, a concert and a photo exhibition, and on Saturday it moves to the village of Sredno Gradishte, where in the morning a hiking tour from the village to the lavender fields is planned. A photographic exhibition entitled „Lavender Impressions“ will be arranged in the square. The yard of the mayor's office will host the traditional culinary exhibition, in which local homemakers will compete in preparing dishes and drinks with the addition of lavender. Exquisite items, souvenirs and appliqués with lavender, made by local artists, will be offered at the specially organized Lavender Bazaar.

For the first time, part of the event is also a Farmers' Market, in which producers from the region and the country will participate with natural and organic milk, cheese, bee honey with lavender, sausages, wine, jams and all kinds of diverse food products produced by hardworking and dedicated farmers. In the afternoon, the Children's Lavender Workshop will be organized for drawings, appliqués and items with lavender, and the bravest and most ambitious participants will compete in the „King and Queen of Lavender“ contest. Along with the rich musical, folklore and dance programme, the star highlight of the festival will be the gala concert of one of the most beloved and popular Bulgarian performers - Yordanka Hristova.

With the support of its co-organisers – the producers of essential oils, the National Lavender Festival is organizing a familiarization tour of the most modern lavender oil distillery in the region, in the village of Sredno Gradishte, where visitors will observe on site the process of processing the essential plant. Wine tastings produced in the wineries in Sredno Gradishte and the surrounding area are planned.
The regions of Chirpan and Stara Zagora are among the most favourable for growing lavender. In Sredno Gradishte, lavender plants planted more than 70 years ago still thrive today. In Bulgaria there are already more than 136,000 decares planted with lavender, with an average annual yield of over 51,000 tons. By tradition, the second annual edition of the National Lavender Festival will be held in the same format on 3 and 4 July 2021 at its Dobrudzha lavender location - the town of General Toshevo.

For additional information: Nina Girginova, tel. 0885666006