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Veliko Tarnovo to modernize open-air audio-visual show of Tsarevets hill fortress

Monday, Feb 01, 2016

The municipal authorities in the city of Veliko Tarnovo in Central North Bulgaria plan to modernize the popular open-air audio-visial show of the Tsarevets Hill Fortress, one of the two citadels (the other being the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress) of the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396) Tarnovgrad.

The show is known as “Sound and Light" (“Zvuk I Svetlina" – „Звук и светлина" in Bulgarian; check out its official website HERE), and is performed only on certain dates such as national or local holidays.

It presents the history of the Second Bulgarian Empire from the Uprising of Asen and Petar (later Tsar Asen IV, r. 1187-1196, and Tsar Petar IV, r. 1186-1197) in 1185 which liberated Bulgaria from Byzantium, until its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in the 1380s and 1390s. (Tarnovgrad itself fell to the Ottoman invaders in 1393 after a three-month siege.)

The open-air Sound and Light Show is performed using lasers and lights projected on the partly restored ruins of the Tsarevets Hill Fortress in Veliko Tarnovo; it also uses narration, dramatic music, and the toll of church bells.

It was designed by a team of audio-visual art experts from Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia in the mid 1980s led by Valo Radev and Jaromir Hnik.

In November 2016, the Sound and Light Show celebrated its 30th birthday, having attracted over 5 million spectators during that period.

Now Veliko Tarnovo Mayor Daniel Panov has came up with the idea to update the already impressive audio-visual show by adding new music, replacing the old light projects with modern LED projectors, and even expanding the show to include the neighboring Trapesitsa Hill Fortress whose restoration is under way.

Veliko Tarnovo Municipality is mulling tasking Bulgarian-Finnish musician Nikolo Kotzev, known for founding the Finnish rock band Brazen Abbot and the Bulgarian rock band Kikimora, with writing new music for the Sound and Light Show to be added to the original music, reports the Trud daily.

Also, the municipal administration would like to replace the original projectors each of which features only one color with LED projectors with multiple colors. What is more, the LED projectors will reduce the cost of a single performance from BGN 800 (app. EUR 400) to BGN 50 (app. EUR 25).

To replace all the 2,400 projectors on the Tsarevets Fortress, however, Veliko Tarnovo Municipality will need over BGN 1 million. This is why the administration might seek EU funding for cultural heritage projects.

Veliko Tarnovo Municipality is already organizing open-air opera performances from the Sofia Opera House as part of a festival but now plans to open up the Tsarevets Hill Fortress for open-air performances of all opera houses in Bulgaria such as the Ruse Opera House and the Varna Opera House.

Another major improvement of the Sound and Light Show would be its potential expansion to include also the other citadel of the medieval city of Tarnovgrad, the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress, whose ruins are presently undergoing a partial archaeological restoration.

Source: archaeologyinbulgaria.com