Koprivshtitsa folk festival was first held in 1965. The festival main objective is to promote the Bulgarian authentic folklore. It gathers together singers, musicians, dancers, custom performers and story tellers from all around the country. Around 4 000 performers attended the first edition of the festival in 1965.

 

The festival takes place every five years, normally in the first half of August, in the picturesque location of Voivodents above the town of Koprivshtitsa. The festival is organised as a competition where all the participants present traditional folklore of their place of origin. As Koprivshtitsa festival is a national gathering, the participants are first selected at a number of regional folklore festivals.

 

In the last edition of the festival in 2010, more than 20 000 participants from Bulgaria attended the festival. In addition to this, a lot of Bulgarian folklore amateurs from all around the world also attended the festival and performed at a specially designed stage in the town.

 

The official competition program take place at the 8 stages in the location of Voivodents while the outside competition events happens mostly in town during the evening.

  

Municipality of Koprivshtitsa and Bulgarian Ministry of Culture organize the festival.