The Seventh National Roma Children Festival “Open Heart” took place in Veliko Tarnovo on June 5 and 6. The Festival, as every year was organized by Center Amalipe in partnership with VelikoTarnovoMunicipality. This year the Festival was supported financially by America for Bulgaria Foundation within the project “Decreasing the dropout rate among Roma”. The event was honored by the President of Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov who sent congratulatory letter also Maria Stoyancheva, Director of Regional Directorate for Social Assistance – Veliko Tarnovo who presented a congratulatory letter on behalf of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Milen Milanov Coordinator of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, Simeon Blagoev, representing the Ministry of culture, also Rumiana Yordanova, representing Veliko Tarnovo Municipality.
During the Seventh edition of the Festival more than 700 children from more than 45 schools from around the country took part in the event. This experience has brought both children and adults to incredible emotions and experiences. We saw a production of folk customs and traditions of three ethnic groups – Roma, Bulgarians and Turks. Participants brought us to the magic of dance, songs, dramatization of stories and customs. For two days Veliko Tarnovo was suffused with colorful clothing and children’s smiles, which brought the atmosphere of unity and diversity. We saw great performances by children from Dolni Tsibar and their choir who performed for the numerous audience Roma songs such as “Ushti, Ushti, Dade” and “Shun, Chshayorie”. Students from SixthSchool in Sliven performed two dances with ethnic elements – “Mustafa” and “Alabina”. On our stage students from the village of Goliamo Novo stared with author’s plot dance-theater performance “Drom Romanes (The Road of the Gypsies) presenting crafts, lifestyle and mentality of the Roma community. Among the colorful world of children’s performances there were dramatizations of Roma weddings also Thracian and Macedonian customs and dances. There was lots of everything. The more we have, the more colorful we are!
Part of the stage program was also the traditional ethnic catwalk, in which over a hundred children from the various schools took part. They presented themselves in traditional dress and self-made outfits. The main attraction of the catwalk were the children from the Belomortsi village, who showed us their evening gowns made out of colorful plastic bags and other recyclables. This idea of theirs was synchronized with the world's environment protection day. Along side the festival's stage program, various workshops were arranged. Any child who would stop at one of our workshops entered a world of colorful fairy tales. Thanks to some of our tireless volunteers - Radena and Darina, all sorts of elfs, dragons, fairies and birds walked amongst the visitors and participators of the festival. It is hard to tell who turned into what, but no one bothered asking, because the magic was all around. 
Amongst the other workshops we had prepared were an Ethnic workshop, where all of the children had the chance to play dress up with different traditional ethnic wears. To add to this, every school-participant had its own little space to exhibit their work from the classes on "roma folklore", as well as the different trades they had learnt. We enjoyed unique icons, ratchet furniture, decor, pottery, fashionable clothes, and of course marvelous drawings. That is what we call a festival! Of course we gave out many awards. After the ethnic catwalk the audience selected the winners of miss and mister "Open heart", Primary School “St. Kliment Ohridsky” from the village of Tishevitsa snatched away the prize "Most open heart", which was brought to us by the VelikoTarnovoMunicipality and presented by Mrs. Rumjana Yordanova, head of Education. The Amalipe centre awarded 3 special prizes to the best participants. The awards are guaranteed participation with all expense paid in next year's festival. Those were the schools from the villages Karadjovo, district of Plovdiv, Dunavtsi, District of Vidin, and Dolni Tsibar. When we speak of festivals we picture fun, song, dance and adventure, but in reality the goal of the team of the Amalipe centre is by having fun, to motivate the children and actively engage them in the whole of the school process. That is exactly why we organized an exhibition of essays and drawings on the topic of "Colorful traditions and childrens' ambitions". It was held outside of the Municipality building on the 4th and 5th 
of June. We let passers by select the best esssay and drawing, which were then awarded at the closing of the festival. Now is the time to thank the authentic and ethnic folklore group from Varna "Zora", without whom the exhibit would not achieve its glee. There is no doubt about it! The fun never stopped, the smiles never darkened, because the greatest joy is to see the fruits of our labor, that is, the happy faces motivated to move forward with their development. We would like to wish you, dear children, to achieve the same successes in school, as you did on stage, because life is a stage, colored by many smiles but also by the many hardships you would have to face. We wish you patience to stay on the right track, will, so you can overcome the hardships, and a smile with which to forget them. The world is beautiful, lets enjoy it together! "This was an unbelievable experience for us! The children will talk about it till the next one comes along”, said a representative of Primary school “Hristo Botev” from the town of Dunavtsi, District Vidin.
