Varna Municipality

Varna Summer, the oldest festival in Bulgaria, began in 1926 as the work of a local cultural society; the municipality took part from 1930 and has organised it since 1967, when the town's arts council assumed it. The international music festival now stretches from June into the autumn, its concerts spread over the open-air Summer Theatre, the Palace of Culture and Sport, the Festival and Congress Centre and the Boris Georgiev gallery, which between them make up most of the city's concert capacity. Visiting orchestras and staged opera come to Varna inside that frame, on the municipality's invitation.