Festival brings thousands of tourists to Bulgaria's Rose valley

(4 Jun 2024) BULGARIA ROSE FESTIVAL SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS RESTRICTIONS: LENGTH: 4:38 ASSOCIATED PRESS Kazanlak, Bulgaria - 2 June 2024 1. Rose petals spread on the road as a Bulgarian folklore dancer steps on them at the opening of the Rose Festival 2. Dancers performing in national costumes 3. Various of baskets of rose petals 3. Dancer arranging her Damascena rose wreath. 4. Various of Theodor Vassilev, tour guide at Kazanlak hystorical museum, demonstrating the centuries old process of extracting rose oil, using barrel and fire 5. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Theodor Vassilev, tour guide at Kazanlak hystorical museum: “The installation you see is a so-called cauldron from the French language - alembic (still). In which we loaded 20 kg of rose flowers and 80 litres of water. This is the vessel for cooling the distillate itself. After the steam comes to the vessel-head, it flows down this pipe, cools down in the cooling vessel and collects it in the bucket, we collect the rose water.” 6. Close of rose water collecting in a bucket 7. Folklore dancers holding baskets filled with roses before their performance 8. Various of dancers dressed in national costumes performing with baskets filled with roses 9. Wide of tourists dancing in the rose fields 10. Tourist smiling as she holds and smells Damascena rose flowers 11. Group of tourists posing in the rose field 12. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Galina Stoyanova, mayor of Kazanlak: “The Rose Festival has its 121st anniversary this year. Every year, it is an emanation of the work of the rose oil producers, of the rose traders who preserve the national symbol - the Bulgarian Damascene rose. This year there will be special celebrations because the harvest was twice as good as last year.” 13. Wide of tourists in the rose fields 14. SOUNDBITE (English) Kayla Whittaker, tourist from USA: “I think it’s beautiful to see just how important the rose oil and the festival, just brings people into the culture, between the music and dance and even the food and things that are available, it’s really exciting just to get to share that culture.” 15. Tourists are guided to take their seats for the Rose Festival Procession 16. Tourists awaiting the start of the procession 17. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Galina Stoyanova, mayor of Kazanlak: “Some 6,000 participants will join the festival procession, while the number of guests will be in the tens of thousands. Every year after the COVID pandemic we see tourism getting back to normal. This year we expect to see a record number of 100,000 tourists from all corners of the world.” 18. Various of people dressed in national costumes walking as they wave and throw rose petals towards the spectators 19. Tourist films on her phone 20. Tracking shot of the procession 21. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Galina Stoyanova, mayor of Kazanlak: “The highest number of visitors come from China, from South Korea, we also have visitors from Vietnam, from all over Europe and, of course, from the United States. We are happy to welcome everyone here.” 22. Various of the festival parade 23. Close of roses LEADIN: Roses are the symbol of Bulgaria, and their home is the famous Rose Valley – a large swath of land squeezed between two mountains in the middle of the Balkan country. Every year, the area hosts a festival dedicated to the flowers. STORYLINE: A carpet of rose petals to dance on. This joyous celebration is part of Kazanlak's Festival of the Rose. The valley is one of the world's biggest production areas for rose oil. AP video by: Valentina Petrova Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...