Festival and Congress Centre

Varna's concert and congress building stands close to the sea gardens, a purpose-built complex of graded halls, the largest of which — Hall 1 — takes symphonic concerts and staged work. It was conceived to serve festivals rather than a resident company, and it does exactly that: the Varna Summer International Music Festival, running since 1926 and the oldest in Bulgaria, has its centre here, as does the Love is Folly film festival. Between the big occasions, the smaller rooms carry cinema, congresses, children's programmes and chamber recitals through the year.