Култура

For three days Dorkovo became the center of folklore and mirth, from the stage in front of the community center was music, songs were sung, dances of different peoples were played. The center of Dorkovo was crowded by numerous people, stalls, swings, sellers of all kinds of goods, the grills and tables in front of the establishments clogged the street, and the mood was constantly high. The fifth international festival of authentic folklore literally took over the lives of Dorkovtsi and their numerous guests who came especially for the event from near and far. The festival was opened on Friday evening by the Dorkovo mayor Ivanitsa Kotulov, and the Mayor of Rakitovo, Georgi Mihailov, gave a greeting. The first evening started with rain and ended with fireworks, the festival flag and the flags of Bulgaria and the European Union were solemnly raised. The parade of the participating over 30 folk ensembles was also led this year by the brass orchestra and the majorette ensemble of Velingrad. Favorites of the audience from the first festival evening became a group of American students who first sang country and then took out a Bulgarian bagpipe and showed how they learned to sing Bulgarian songs and play Bulgarian people.
On Saturday and Sunday every half hour a new line-up was coming on the stage, and the long-awaited guests from Serbia, Ukraine, Spain, an exclusive program showed the line-up from Hungary. The festival traditionally has no competitive character, and all participants received a diploma and many beautiful wood prizes made by the dork Rumen Hadzhiev. For the fifth time the creators of the festival - Dorkovo Town Hall, Community Center "St. Cyril and Methodius" and the ensemble "Shepherd's Song" proved that they are engaged in a good deed for the glorification of Dorkovo and folklore. This year, the Municipality of Rakitovo, the Open Society Foundations, King Baudouin and Worker's Civic Initiative, the companies Kamenitza and Rozhen plast helped them in their huge efforts to organize the festival.
The fact that from year to year the Dorkovo festival gathers more and more ensembles, that it has already established itself as one of the strong events with international participation in the region, speaks for itself: folklore and the desire to preserve it are alive. And it is precisely small settlements like Dorkovo that are the place where the fountain of folk art has really never dried up and will not dry up.
Nevena Pavlova