Travel | Festivals | Bulgaria

A Rose Festival in the Foothills of the Balkan Mountains

Learning about the tradition of ‘Rozober’ (rose-picking)

If you find yourself in Bulgaria in early June — and you fancy yourself a festival or rose aficionado — you may want to attend the annual Rose Festival in the town of Kazanlak, which — if you’re looking at a map of Bulgaria — seems to be smack-dab in the middle of the country.

Though I grew up not far from Bulgaria’s Rose Valley, I had never attended the festival until this year, and I quickly realized, I’d been missing out.

Fun, educational, and entertaining: that’s how I’d describe my weekend.

The Balkan Mountains in the background only enhanced the experience!

Because the decision to attend the festival was spontaneous, by the time we tried to secure an accommodation, the entire town of Kazanlak was already booked. Luckily, we were able to find a gorgeous guest apartment in Kalofer, located about 40km from Kazanlak.

We only spent a weekend, but if you have the time to visit for a week or more, I recommend coming even earlier and taking advantage of the many rose- and festival-related cultural and musical events that take place throughout the month of May, leading up to the festival weekend.

Even for two days, however, there was so much to see and enjoy. Case in point: the arts and crafts market along the town’s central square, boasting a variety of creations from local artists, including tons of rose oil products.

The town also hosted a wine expo, featuring products from mostly small, family-owned wineries around the country, so visitors get to taste drinks and support makers whom they may not come across otherwise.

One of the vendors we chatted with mentioned the town’s Rosarium (rose garden) and emphasized we must check it out.

Though it had started drizzling by the time we finished tasting all we were allowed to taste at the expo, we ventured out for a walk to the garden.

The vibrant colors immediately brightened the gloomy afternoon. Roses of all colors welcomed those who braved the rain.

Later, as we sauntered back to the town center, we were greeted by a huge crowd. An International Folklore Festival was about to commence, with traditional sounds and dances from multiple countries in the region, including Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, of course.

Without a doubt, however, the highlight of the weekend was observing and learning about the traditional ritual of Rozober (rose-picking).

The ritual takes place early in the mornings, in one of the many rose fields outside local villages in the area, and unless you are coming on a tour, a vehicle is needed to get to location.

The ideal time to pick roses is 4am–8am when the oil is most powerful. For the Rozober event, however, a few rows of roses are left unpicked, so before and after the program, visitors get to frolic among the roses, pick some, take fotos, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The official program starts at 10am and takes place on the road that goes by the rose field. As such, I recommend lining up early, so that you can be in the front where it’s easier to observe performances and hear the narration.

The program features traditional folklore dances and a storyteller who takes us through what a day of Rozober used to look like:

From villagers getting up in the middle of the night, to choosing rose-pickers, to carefully collecting rose petals while singing and connecting with neighbors, to recognizing the hardest working rose-picker.

We also got to take a glimpse at а гюлпан (guylpan), the type of cauldron that was traditionally used for the distillation process in producing rose water and rose oil.

I recommend visiting the Rose Museum in Kazanlak for a closer look — in all my photos, the contraption is surrounded by people and hard to see, though you can partially see it on the right side of the middle photo above.

This was by far the best smelling festival I’ve ever attended — passing by the multiple rose fields in the region, especially in the early morning, you can’t escape — and why would you want to anyway? — the aroma enveloping you.