За българския Монмартър

For us to celebrate the Days of the Old Town, this is Atanas Krastev’s personal achievement, or as he is known Nacho Kulturata [Nacho the Culture]. When he first attempted to give a start to these celebrations, he was castigated. His goal was to turn our Old Town into, say, Montmartre. A Bulgarian Montmartre that would showcase the triumphs of Bulgarian culture. I cannot even remember the names of the artists that agreed to exhibit in the street as there were no courtyards as yet, but I think one of them was Gosho Slona [Gosho the Elephant], and the other one, I cannot say whether it was Mityo Kirov or someone else. The point is that these things were done. Relying on our own financial resources, educed out of who knows which paragraphs, this is what we did. It turned out quite spectacular for the Old Town visitors. Then it transpired we had done it all without permission from the authorities, with enthusiasm alone, and that caused a bit of a rupture between the Old Town and the authorities. From that rupture onwards, we had some rather positive vibrations, with their permission and our enthusiasm, but mostly comrade Krastev’s, a phenomenon got started, the so called Days of Culture of the Old Town. Plovdiv, 11th March 1997.

Interview with Elena Uzunska, 62, recorded by Krassimira Krastanova