Economic Growth Bulgaria Project #39027

Help Vitalize Nine Bulgarian Villages

by Devetaki Plateau Association

Project Report | May 13, 2021
The First Seven

By Iva Taralezhkova | Board Chair of Devetaki Plateau Association

Photographers

Dear freidns of the Devetaki Plateau villages,

We are glad to report that after a hard 2020, we are still here and working! Our villages survived the crisis, our community was helping each other when in need.

Now, with the end of the last lockdown we can be proud that the interest of tourists to our wonderful region, the Devetaki Plateau, has increased! The hospitable guesthouses, the small shops and restaurants are happy to welcome visitors from all over Bulgaria!

So, we have started to plan our seventh edition of the Jazz Under The Stars festival. It has been a challenge since the very beginning, but we are happy we have now the first seven years from the start! We have analyzed our work so far and we discovered that thanks to the efforts of the local people, of the municipalities, and especially, thanks to YOUR support through the GlobalGiving platform, we have brought to the region about 8 000 guests! This is the statistics for the festival audiences throughout these years. In addition, this has helped us promote our nine villages and the whole Devetaki Plateau as an attractive and cultural tourist destination with high-quality services and non-conventional events. This has helped the local small businesses and the local economic development as a whole.

And, most of all, our villages are undergoing a real revival: young people, originating from there, start coming back from the towns and cities; people from other regions come and purchase houses and property, life is slowly coming back here!

Thank you! We hope you will continue supporting our cause and alike! We hope that more people will be tempted to feel the joy of helping, the happiness of doing good!

Stay healthy and be welcome to our magic place!

Natural beauty

The Jazz Fest setting

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Oct 22, 2020
Rural Jazz In Times Of Crisis

By Iva Taralezhkova | Board Chair of Devetaki Plateau Association

The loged-for beginning

The worldwide pandemic situation did not bypass our region, nor our nine villages. Hundreds of events and initiatives were stopped, cancelled, or postponed... So was our Jazz Fest. In May, our Board decided to cancel it due to the situation and the restrictions for events organization.

However, the summer had a very positive influence on the people's health; the restrictions were softened, the people started to travel and searched for destinations in the nature, not crowded or polluted - just like our Devetaki Plateau!

Together with that, the people were starving for cultural events, many theatres and concert halls being closed in the big cities. We received numerous letters from people who had attended our Jazz Under The Stars event, asking us if we plan to organize it. The people in our village also suffered the lack of social anc cultural life and were anxious for music and joy.

On the other hand, we could observe how hard the situation affected the artists: musicians, actors, performers from around the country were absolutely desperate, and not only for the lack of incomes during the lockdown, they really longed for the stage, for the live performance, for the contact with the audience...

All these were the reasons that made us reconsider and the decision seemed really smple: No way to cancel the Jazz Under the Stars! We have to do it!

And, thanks to your donations that came to about USD 3000, we were able to plan and organize a smaller format which we called "Jazz Under the Stars, no matter if it's autumn"! We had 10 musicians, a small but passionate crew, who did their best for a really beautiful evening!

Neither the rain, nor the cold wind which welcomed the audience in the small village of Karpachevo, could stop us! On the contrary, when it stopped raining after an hour, the music changed to a faster tempo, and everyone started dancing. We warmed up - our bodies and souls, and we were really happy we were able to offer so much joy and happiness to the local people, to the musicians, and to the audience, who stayed up long after midnight.

Thank you all and hope you will join this mucis feast, which enlivens our nine Bulgarian villages!

The Jazz-ladies from the local folclore club

"I'm singing in the rain"

Focus

Viewpoints

Different kind of light

On the stage again

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Apr 24, 2020
Villages and people in times of crisis

By Iva Taralezhkova | Board Chair of Devetaki Plateau Association

This too shall pass

The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the link between public health outcomes and social life, economics, culture and governance. Immediate national and international responses are focusing on medical and humanitarian assistance, but these alone will be insufficient to meet needs and respond to this crisis. A holistic response is required to protect communities, especially those who are far from the capitals, the big towns and the decision-makers. It is now more necessary than ever to protect democratic principles, build citizen trust and defend the rights of all members of the society.

Not health alone, culture, tourism and economics are in critical situation, also in our villages in the Devetaki Plateau. Due to the crisis, the sixth edition of our Jazz under the Stars Fest might not take place this year. This is a hard decision to take because the fest has already become a major event in the social and cultural life of the region and local people are looking forward to it. But we need to be responsible and we will follow the regulations and obstructions caused by the pandemic situation.

In the meantime, we have started working intensively with the communities in our villages to help people stay informed and to lift their spirits in times of social isolation. We initiated a rubric in the Devetaki Plateau Website and FB page under the name “This too shall pass”, an old saying indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. Every day we collect and post useful information about the situation and its repercussions for the villages’ everyday life. We also post interesting stories and cheer-up pictures, music and other online cultural events. We gave an outreach growth to 1053 only for the last week. Each publication is read by over 100 people and we have hundreds of new followers. So, we hope this is another way to respond to the crisis and keep the life in these villages going despite the difficulties.

If we do not detect any serious needs caused by the crisis that can be helped with the donations made generously by all of you in GlobalGiving, we will still use the money for the next edition of the fest, be it in 2020 or next year.

Until then, we hope you will stay healthy, stay with us and help others join our noble cause – revive nine Bulgarian villages.

Links:

http://www.devetakiplateau.org

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