1. 2-Km-Long Chain Dance Woundon the Bulgaria square in Smolyan, Bulgarian National Television released. The town in the Rhodope Mountains hosted the 13th edition of the Orpheus Celebrations that were closed on Sunday with a gala concert. The grand show This is Bulgaria was the culmination of the special Orpheus evening. Actor Georgi Cherkelov and the dance troupe Balgare completely charmed the audience by the eighth world wonder: the Bulgarian folklore. Rhodopian soft bagpipes, Macedonian oath, St Lazar's Day dances and fire-dances took turns in that voyage through Bulgarian folklore regions. In the end, more than 2,000 people took hands in the great chain dance (horo).
2. Drought Spoils Mushrooms' SeasonPeople, who have embarked on a business with mushroom-growing in this country, foretell it will be a hard year for the branch because of the drought. The lack of enough mushrooms will affect those, who live on mushroom gathering and those who trade in them, experts in the branch say. The weather forecasts for the next two months of the year scares the mushroom vendors even more. Hot and dry days are expected and this is to prove fatal to the mushroom-growing. All the people, young and old, in the town of Belitsa live on mushroom growing. There were revolts in the region last year because of the low purchase prices of the mushrooms. The Western Rhodope and Rila mountains were basking in mushrooms because of the spring rains in 2002. Their prices fell from 8 or 10 levs per kilo down to only 0.5 lev per kilo of mushrooms. This is what caused revolts among the mushroom-gatherers in the municipality of Belitsa.
3. Bulgaria Invites Golf TouristsGolf tourism is a priority of the Economy Ministry, Vice-PM Nikolay Vassilev said on his return from London. A special employee was appointed with the Economy Ministry to analyze the opportunities for building golf courses and attracting foreigners in Bulgaria. Worldwide, 56 million people play golf and travel all the time, spending mad money, Vassilev elaborated. Golf is played in all seasons, so the hotels will be booked in winter as well, he forecast optimistically. Maybe a new consultant on the privatization of Bulgartabac will be selected, Vassilev said further. Investments banks JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS have already shown interest. Vassilev did not rule out reshuffles in the Board of the tobacco holding.