What does one need in the month of the World Cup? Some friends, a TV and lots of beer, of course. That's exactly what the BeerRelation Festival in Sofia’s South Park offered to the residents and the visitors of the city.

The beer weekend started on Thursday and offered music and pleasant meetings outdoors, as well as knowledge about the beverage that has been part of people’s lives since ancient times. Vikings, Celts, Romans and Saxons are separated by geography and time but they all have something in common. This is the same thing that people from the 21st century share – the love for beer.

What niche is this festival expected to fill in?

Since forums that bring together established producers and famous boutique brand breweries are rarely organised in Bulgaria, BeerRelation creates a platform that gives an equal chance to large and small producers to attract attention and show the quality of their products.

Tanya Konakchieva told us more about the festival:

"The idea came spontaneously and was inspired by our friends who wanted to organise some kind of beer festival, but not just an ordinary one. We selected good music and launched the festival during the World Cup 2014 in order for people to be able to watch football while drinking good beer. At the same time we decided to offer entertainment that one cannot often see. We also wanted to offer people the opportunity to learn more about different types of beer produced in Bulgaria and abroad.”

In the tent of Binar Radio - the Internet radio of BNR, which is media partner of the festival, we met a man for whom beer is a favourite beverage as well as family business. Temelko Pampov is president of the Bulgarian Homebrewers Association, bringing together people who, contrary to popular opinion, believe that the local market has room for dozens of new beer brands.

What are the successes of the members of the organisation?

“We have had success in beer competitions in Eastern Europe. We have participated in competitions in Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Poland. Beers that we present are very well received and Bulgarian home brewers have already won awards. Georgi Tsanev from Plovdiv received the Bronze Pine Cone Award at the Biela Vrana - White Crow competition in Kosice, Slovakia for his bock beer.”

Along with popular traditional brands and boutique types of beer, BeerRelation showed visitors part of the amazing diversity of poorly known and unknown brands of beer, not only from traditional manufacturers such as Belgium and the Netherlands, but also from Sweden, USA and other exotic beer destinations.

One of the importers of Trappist beer - Dimitar Dimitrov, told us more about the history of Trappist beer, stemming from the Order of Saint Benedict. LaTrappe is actually the name of a monastery in France from the 12th century, where monks first started making this type of beer.

The Beer Relation Festival has once again demonstrated that beer provides pleasure to the senses and brings people together. Music, theatre performances, traditional competitions and games entertained visitors.

BeerRelation has also given a good start to summer. According to statistics, Bulgarians consumed 500 million litres of beer last year. But as BeerRelation showed, it's not only quantity that matters, but quality.

Expect soon more on home brewers and collectors of beer items in this country!

English: Alexander Markov