BALKANS Festival to Ward Off EVIL Spirits

[Ladybbird]

BALKANS Festival: Traditional Masked Dancers Scare Off EVIL Spirits

BBC 29 JAN 2023














"It's a difficult task to say exactly when the first masquerade games began, especially if we talk about "Surva festivals" in the Pernik region. When we ask the performers about when the Surva rites started, all answers are much the same - from the beginning of time.

We will not stop on the prehistoric roots of the mummers' rites, but in its development in nowadays as wells in past decades. What I'd like to emphasise is that Surva here in the Pernik region is the most significant feast. There is no other holiday, but the Surva that makes people return to their otherwise abandoned villages."


1. Various of masked men from central Bulgaria wearing elaborate costumes, including masks and bells, performing in Surva festival

2. Performers dancing with cow bells tied around their waists

3. Children looking at performances

4. Folk musicians perform during festival

5. Masked men preparing to perform

6. Masked men dancing, close up of bells

7. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Iglika Mishkova, Ethnologist at Bulgarian Ethnology Museum :

8. Young boy dancing with bells before feast of Surva

9. Various of villagers taking part in feast of Surva, dancing around bonfire

10. Close up of bonfire

11. Man leaning on crook as he waits to perform

12. Close up of feet as group perform dance