Vienna club

The Vienna Club was founded at the Austrian Embassy in Sofia on 11 October 1995 as a voluntary, non-political association. It promotes Austrian culture in Bulgaria and Bulgarian culture in Austria through exhibitions, concerts, literary events and other exchanges. The association is particularly associated with Sofia’s charity Vienna Ball, whose tradition began in 1996. The event follows elements of the Viennese carnival-season ball, including an opening by debutants, dancing and charitable fundraising, under the patronage of the Austrian ambassador and a Bulgarian public figure. The association was set up in Sofia in the mid-1990s and exists chiefly to run one evening a year: the Vienna Ball, a charity event whose proceeds go to a named cause. The twentieth ball fell on 15 February 2020 and the 2026 edition on 21 February; recent years have used the Sofia hall of the Marinela Hotel. Nikolay Talev chairs it, with Maria Neykova as honorary chair.