We had such a good time!

The outdoor theater in Stolipinovo

We had such a good time. At the heart of the neighbourhood, on Elba Street, there was an outdoor cinema back then. Yes, we had film screenings. It has been quite a while since, some twenty years or so. The cinema was huge, the space was huge: some 1,000 visitors could be accommodated.

When you enter, you first pass by the stage and then there were the seats. There are blocks of flats there now, but we used to go to the cinema there when I was young. We had such a good time. In 1980 I had done my military service. It must have been 1985-1986, I used to sing here at the Peyo Yavorov Community Centre.

We had an orchestra and we did concerts at the cinema. I was the singer. We used to sing Bulgarian pop songs. There were two girls from the school singing there too. We had a couple of guitars, a synthesizer, and drums. We had actors and singers from Sofia and we did concerts and performances with them. We had such a good time!

We had such a good time!

We took part in everything with the orchestra: at the Military Club and at the 6th International Balkan Festival, we won the first place two years in a row. There were people from all over the world, from Chile, you name it. People here had a place to unwind. Now it is a reception hall for weddings. The theatre is gone, it is Muhteşem SALON now (in Turkish it means “a wonderful hall”) and they rent it out. I remember when we had our concerts there were no vacant seats inside. The boys and girls would even climb onto the stage to watch.

Krassi’s story, Stolipinovo Quarter, recorded by A.A.