Summer Theatre Varna

Varna's Summer Theatre is an open-air performance venue in the central Sea Garden. The present structure dates from the 1960s and has 2,341 seats and a stage of approximately 250 square metres framed by vegetation. It has hosted the Varna International Ballet Competition, whose first edition took place in 1964, as well as opera performances associated with the Varna Summer International Music Festival and the Opera at the Summer Theatre series. Folk festivals and other concerts also use the venue. Varna's open-air theatre stands in the Sea Garden, the long shoreline park laid out in the late nineteenth century, and it is the stage on which the International Ballet Competition has been held since 1964 — the first competition of its kind anywhere, and still one by which dancers measure themselves. The same amphitheatre carries much of the summer festival season: opera and orchestral concerts, recitals by singers, and lighter programmes that fill the terraces on a warm night.