The Rozhen National Folklore Fair is a major Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 fair held every four years on the meadows of the Rozhen area in Smolyan

Smolyan

Smolyan is a town and ski resort in the very south of Bulgaria not far from the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the homonymous Smolyan Province...

 municipality, Smolyan Province

Smolyan Province

-Religion:The Smolyan province along with the Kardzhali Province is a province where the predominant religion is not Orthodox Christianity but Islam. However, unlike Kardzhali where the majority of the population is Turkish, the Muslim population of the Smolyan province is made up almost entirely...

, in the Rhodope Mountains

Rhodope Mountains

The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...

 of southern Bulgaria. The fair's goal is to popularize the Bulgarian folk dance and song art and it lasts for two days in August.

The first fair was held in 1898. At the time, the border between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 ran through Rozhen Peak, and Bulgarians from neighbouring villages on both sides of the border would gather. Initially, the fair was annual, and took place every year with the exception of 1901, 1903, 1906 and 1907.

After 1912, when the Rhodopes were liberated from Ottoman rule, the fair lost its political importance, but nevertheless remained a symbol of freedom, Bulgarian unity and traditions. Initially only targeted at Rhodopean music and dances, the fair later became a nationwide event, a festival and a singing competition at once, as well as the largest folk song festival in the country. The peak was in 1972, when 3,500 musicians and dancers participated (of which 300 gaida

Gaida

The gaida is a musical instrument, aerophone, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag.The gaida, and its variations, is a traditional musical instrument for entire Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East....

players) and the audience reached 150,000.

The fair is traditionally opened with the Bela Sam Bela Yunache („Бела съм бела юначе“) song, the unofficial anthem of the Rhodopes, and reaches its climax with the Zvezden Rozhen („Звезден Рожен“; "Starry Rozhen") performance, when, on the evening of the first day, under the stars, the most prominent Rhodopean singers perform the best known songs from the region.