Christmas Bazaar Opens in Bulgarian Capital



The Christmas bazaar in Bulgaria's capital Sofia opened Thursday at 11 am on the Vitosha Boulevard, the main street in the city's down town.

Santa Claus and the Snow Princess arrived for the launch of the festivities in a retro tram car.

The 12 tents, located all along the boulevard, will sell Christmas souvenirs, decorations, gifts, and goodies.

The retro tram will run daily, from 1 pm to 5 pm, until the closing of the bazaar on January 3.

The events are carried out by the "
Sredets"
district town hall and are an extension of their initiative "
Sofia Breaths,"
organized in August on the "
Ivan Shishman"
street, also in down town Sofia.

Crisis-busting IWC bazaar

Despite the economic crisis and the best efforts of Scrooge to stop us spending, early indications were that this year's IWC Christmas Bazaar, which was officially opened by Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova at the Inter Expo Enter on December 5, was overwhelmingly successful.

An early tally, just 48 hours after it ended, showed that the bazaar had raised more than 200 000 leva but late donations and post sales will nudge that figure up to nearer 300 000 leva. It also attracted about 5500 visitors, excluding children under the age of 12. The day saw more than 1000 volunteers in attendance, 1500 people having contributed their services in total.

A total of 57 countries participated, with 67 stalls, compared to 49 countries, 59 stalls and about 5000 visitors in 2009. Vietnam and Malta were first-time stallholders this year but many charitable foundations also set up independent stalls.

The UK stall, headed by ambassador Steve Williams and his wife, Fiona, proved as popular as ever with its array of mouthwatering home-made scones, mince pies and jams. Also delectable were flapjacks at the Irish stall. All three catering areas, the Italian Bar Mediterraneo, the French Bistro and the Absolut Vodka Cocktail Bar at the Nordic-Baltic Stall, did an excellent job in catering to guests.

Among this year's activities were face painting, retro modelling sessions, a performance from a children's choir, a salsa show, Japanese calligraphy and Latino dance.

Proceeds from the bazaar go to innumerable good causes, including the Baba (grandmother) project whereby women visit children in orphanages. The IWC Charity Foundation currently supports five such programmes involving a total of 30 babas.

The Sofia Echo would like to commend the work of Marianna Maclaren, this year's Bazaar Co-ordinator, for her sterling efforts.

Perhaps next year we could have a few more chairs for older people to have a respite?

We had attended and participated in this bazaar for the first time. We were helping in the Indian Embassy stand.
We had a great time and the turn out was amazing. There were loads of people and the whole event was very lively.

We will definitely attend the next event.