Международен панаир Пловдив

Plovdiv's fair opened in 1892 as an industrial and agricultural show and has outlasted every political arrangement Bulgaria has known since. It became permanent and international in the mid-1930s, joining the Union des Foires Internationales in 1936, and the present complex beside the Maritsa was laid out in 1948–49. Twenty-four pavilions stand on a site of some 360,000 square metres, with the largest exhibition capacity in south-eastern Europe; about forty shows a year pass through them. Between fairs the grounds serve the city as covered and open space for large public events.