The folk dance club "Chanove" turns another year older on October 3, marking the occasion in central Burgas with an "Autumn Forum" that brings together dancers from across Bulgaria, the club and Burgas council said.

A parade sets off at 11:00 from the clock outside Hotel Bulgaria and heads for Troyka Square. At 12:00 the dancers get an official welcome outside the Tria City Center, and the main program kicks off at the same time on the square.

This is the 17th year the forum has run, drawing groups from every branch the club has around the country. There's no competition, no rankings and no winners.

The point, organizers say, is to let people see Bulgarian folk dance up close while dancers from different towns mark the club's birthday together.

Milena and Kostadin Gospodinov founded the club in Sofia in 2005. It now has branches in six towns — Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Chirpan and Kostenets — with more than 1,000 dancers taking part. All year round, the dancers train hundreds of kilometers apart.

The Burgas branch has been going since 2009, led by choreographers Albena and Sevdalin Trendafilov. The first sessions were held at the Lyuben Karavelov school in the Vazrazhdane neighborhood, where the groups still rehearse today. They also train at the new building of the Hans Christian Andersen kindergarten, at the Zvezditsa Zornitsa kindergarten, and in the Chernomorka cooperative building near the Trapezitsa roundabout.

"Chanove" performances have become a fixture on Burgas's cultural calendar, and in past years the main stage has also gone up on Troyka Square. The groups also take part in town festivals, folklore events and charity events around the country.

In June 2025, the same square hosted the anniversary edition of the "Horo by the Azure Coast" festival, with more than 900 dancers from 29 folklore clubs taking part.