90 days of culture, music and theatre with Sofia’s Summer Fest

The festival will also offer a STEM day-care centre for kids, featuring 3D modelling, robotics and more

Sofia Summer Fest has returned to the Bulgarian capital for the third year in a row. The cultural megaproject officially opened on 1 July and will keep the party vibes going with a near-daily programme featuring street food, stand-up, music and theatre, many of them for free.

Apart from the strong cultural programme featuring artists from Bulgaria and from abroad, the festival will also provide Sofia’s children with a day-care centre, where kids will have the chance to play and learn in STEM subjects like 3D modelling, robotics and more.

90 days of culture

For the first time ever, Sofia Summer Fest will offer a cultural programme that will last 90 days, making it one of the longest of its kind in Bulgaria. According to an official statement, the festival’s director, Borislav Chuchkov, explained that this was the largest event project that his team has handled, however, their previous experience is what will guide them through the process.

In the first couple of days, the festival played host to representatives of the Bulgarian-Asian community, who presented the many local iterations of Asian culture. In the following weeks, the festival will be home to old and contemporary musical acts, literary events, theatre performances and even a retro car show.

Summer in the city – kids edition

According to a joint statement by the festival’s organisers and MindHub, the partner organisation behind the day-care centre, one of the main reasons for the addition is that many children lack the opportunity for meaningful activities during the summer.

In fact, according to Chuchkov, the team believes that many children have nowhere to go in the countryside or grandparents to visit. This statement is based on the longstanding Bulgarian tradition of sending kids away to their grandparents for the summer, so that ‘mom and dad can have a little time off’.

During the day at Sofia Summer Fest, MindHub will offer kids a variety of activities in their open-air STEM academy, built around 9 weeklong themes. The goal here is to help children experience the practical implications of the subjects they learn in school. This includes everything from chemistry experiments to robotics and 3D modelling.