July Morning 2023, Varna, Bulgaria

July Morning is an annual Bulgarian festival, celebrated on the night before and the first day of July. The festival is unique to Bulgaria but it is not universally observed in the country. Every year Bulgarians celebrate the start of summer by waiting for the sunrise on 1 July in a hippie-rooted tradition started back in the 1980s, called July Morning. The festival has its origins in the dissident movement back when the Iron Curtain was still up, symbolising the unbreakable yearning to be free, which since 1989, has turned into a celebration of freedom itself. Hundreds of people flock to the Black Sea Every year hundreds of people from all around the country flock to the Black Sea to meet the first sunrise of July. The idea is that this is a sort of symbolic start to the summer –a season-long period where every day feels like a holiday. People go camping or attend music beach festivals, organized specifically for the occasion. Others go to the cities of Varna or Burgas or other tourist resorts on the Black Sea, or venture to natural camping spots, such as Irakli or Kara-Dere. Some hitchhike, and yet others do not even go to the coast, preferring to celebrate the occasion in their hometowns. The tradition is named after July Morning, a song by the British band Uriah Heep. John Lawton, frontman of the band, usually comes to perform at Kamen Bryag, a village located in the north of the Bulgarian coast. #July Morning #JulyMorning #July @Morning #beach #sunrise #varna #uriahheep #varna #юли #варна