Festival “Once Upon a Time… When Bread Had a Soul” revives local traditions in the Petrich region.

More than 500 people from across Bulgaria are gathering today in the village of General Todorov, near Petrich, for the national festival “Once Upon a Time… When Bread Had a Soul,” the village mayor, Stanislav Stankov, has announced. Now in its fourth year, the event will also welcome many guests from the Republic of North Macedonia.

For the first time, the village has created a dedicated crafts street — The Charshiya — featuring only handmade items, with artisans demonstrating their skills and producing traditional goods on the spot.

Two stages have been set up especially for the occasion. One will showcase traditional music and dance, while the other will host living demonstrations of village life, where craftspeople recreate everyday chores of the past and practise age-old skills such as weaving and wool spinning.

Each participant is asked to bring along two homemade dishes of their choice and provide the organisers with the recipes. The most successful will be published in a cookbook, to be distributed free of charge at next year’s festival.

The festival is organised by the Yane Sandanski 1946 community centre, with the support of Petrich Municipality and the mayor’s office in General Todorov. Its purpose is to preserve folk traditions and authentic recipes and to pass them on to future generations.