Varna Summer International Theatre Festival

Varna Summer International Theatre Festival is the biggest international theatre event in Bulgaria that takes place annually in the city of Varna on the Black Sea coast. The main festival program consists of 2 modules: the Bulgarian Selection distinguishes the significant artistic achievements of the current national theatre season; the International Selection presents a variety of forms in the performing arts and leading trends from Europe and the world. Some of the more notable artists whose work has been presented at the festival are: Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, Declan Donnellan, Romeo Castellucci, Pippo Delbono, Marie Chouinard, Oskaras Korsunovas, Alvis Hermanis, Andriy Zholdak, Forced Entertainment, CandoCo Dance Company, Dimiter Gotscheff, Sam Green&Ben Green and many others. Since 2008 the Varna Summer ITF co-organizes a Showcase that features innovative and mobile Bulgarian productions in contemporary theatre, dance and performance, presented to specially invited international professional guests and programmers. The Parallel Program contributes to the festival atmosphere with various events such as open air shows, exhibitions, concerts… It opens also working space for discussions, educational workshops and theatre meetings. Together with Varna Summer International Music Festival it initiated the Intermezzo Program that shows cross-over events between theatre and music. Each year the festival draws more than 10 000 spectators.