Bulgarian Christian Orthodox mark Monday the Day of Saint Sava or Sabbas.

St. Sabbas was born in 439. He is a Cappadocian-Greek monk, priest and saint, who lived mainly in Palestine. He was the founder of several monasteries, most notably the one known as Mar Saba.

In Bulgarian folklore Sava is the brother Saint Varvara, who is honored the day before and Saint Nikola, honored on December 6, called in Bulgaria “Nikulden.” Sava is presented as the best from the three siblings, always walking behind Varvara, asking her to not drop ice from her sleeve on the fields.

Varvara and Sava are also said to be the ones to prepare the “Nikulden” celebration. According to a Bulgarian proverb, Varvara is cooking, Sava is baking while Nikola is treating guests with food.

This year’s Sofia Rocks festival gathered a string of heavyweights from the 70s and 80s UK rock scene and went on into the wee hours Saturday.

The event, organized by Balkan Entertainment Company at Sofia’s Balgarska Armiya (CSKA) Stadium, kicked off in the blasting heat around 4.30 pm Friday with Bulgarians Sheky and the Bloodrain, who pulled off a couple of songs from their hard rock repertoire.

Soon after the sweltering crowd gave a more than warm welcome to British glam rock veterans Slade, who have made a return as a live band.

The bunch showed great enthusiasm and in their 50-minutes’ set showered on the audience old hits such as “Coz I Luv You,” “My Oh My” and “Cum on Feel the Noize.”

Mal McNulty’s voice showed an unrelenting rasp, founders Dave Hill and Don Powell showed class, while John Berry showed proficiency by every now and then swapping his bass for the violin.

Then the show was on to more epic ground with UK heavy metal classics Saxon, who excited the more hard core part of the crowd, presenting a mix of classic songs and numbers from their fresh 2011 outing “Call to Arms.”

New songs “Hammer of the Gods” and “Call to Arms” were just huge, and the crowd went totally crazy with metal anthems such as “Crusader” and “Wheels of Steel.”

Eternal frontman Biff Byford walked the stage like a dignified Saxon warrior and gave his thanks for the support of the thousand-strong crowd that was on the verge of collapse from metal and fire.

The lead singer of metal band Saxon Byff Byford during Sofia Rocks. Photo by Sofia News Agency

Things lightened with Mike & the Mechanics, the pop-rock formation of Mike Rutherford of Genesis fame. The choice of line-up for the fest proved successful, since after the first couple of minutes into their set, you could see many happily dancing and clapping hands.

One of the more curious things about the band was co-lead singer Tim Howar’s choice to dress in a Blind Guardian shirt, possibly to placate the heavy metal audience.

The crowd itself did not seem to need such a kind gesture per se, as it was plainly enjoying hits such as “Another Cup Of Coffee,” and “The Living Years,” plus Genesis classics “Follow You Follow Me” and “I Can’t Dance.”

By the way, Mike & the Mechanics is apparently still one of the most played bands on Bulgarian radio.

A little after 9 pm, when the night weather was starting to turn beautiful, the imperious David Coverdale artistically took on the stage with his band Whitesnake, blasting into “The Best Years” from their 2008 album “Good to Be Bad.”

Then on to 80s hits “Give Me All Your Love,” “Love Ain’t No Stranger,” and “Is This Love,” to be followed by a bunch of songs from the fresh 2011 Whitesnake album “Forevermore.”

The new cuts were strong, with the title track being particularly stirring. The audience never failed to be touched by Coverdale’s tales of love and failure and so went nuts to old gems “Fool for Your Loving,” “Here I Go Again” and crushing closer “Still of the Night.”

Brilliant singer Coverdale, whose voice has acquired a certain raspiness, but has kept his inimitable warm tone, bade farewell with an a cappella rendition of “Soldier of Fortune” from his stint in Deep Purple.

Around 11 pm the stage was being prepared for headliners Judas Priest, one of the bands that defined the heavy metal style, who have embarked on their last major world tour, aptly named “Epitaph” (also the name of a little-known ballad from their 1976 “Sad Wings of Destiny”).

The British quintet blasted in with “Rapid Fire” and “Metal Gods” from their 1980 classic “British Steel” and went on a rollercoster ride through their varied and acclaimed discography, from “Never Satisfied” out of their first album “Rocka Rolla” (1974) to “Prophecy” from their last outing “Nostradamus” (2008).

Outstanding vocalist Rob Halford performed in his usual theatrical style, his voice easily reaching the piercing heights he is famed for, guitarist Glenn Tipton was top notch with his blasting solos, and drummer Scott Travis put on a fiery performance.

The only unfortunate thing was the absence of founding axeman K.K. Downing who retired from the band ahead of the tour.

The sound frontstage was simply punishing, especially on tracks such as “Judas Rising” and “Painkiller,” the lights, fire and smoke onstage were spectacular.

A softer side of the show was classic Joan Baez cover “Diamonds and Rust,” while things turned epic with “Beyond the Realms of Death” and “Blood Red Skies.”

The more dance-worthy Priest pieces were chosen to be at the end of the set, which closed its final encore after 1 pm with the apt hit “Living after Midnight.”

Geraldine Chaplin, head of the jury at the Moscow International Film Festival, appeared in a peculiar outfit during the graduation ceremony in order to protest against a Bulgarian movie not receiving an award.

The combination of a stylish dress and sneakers was no coincidence, Bulgarian National Television’s correspondent to Russia, Vasko Mihaylov has reported, as that was the way she was endorsing her strong favorite – the Bulgarian movie “Sneakers“.

Even though Chaplin and other jury members insisted on awarding the Bulgarian contestant, the organizers did not allow it, since they claimed the selection of the awards should be “balanced”, Chaplin told the correspondent.

Mihaylov commented that “balanced” refers to the political reasons behind the awards, explaining that a Russian movie had to receive a prize, leaving no place for the Bulgarian one among the winners.

“Sneakers” still received an honorable mention on behalf of the jury, which is not a common practice. The movie was also widely acclaimed by critics and regular viewers alike during the festival, on which it debuted, the Bulgarian National Radio said.

“I will be wearing sneakers until the movie is awarded at some point,” Geraldine Chaplin declared before Mihaylov.

“Sneakers“, the debut feature of young directors Ivan Vladimirov and Valeri Yordanov, was  one of the 17 selected for competition for the festival’s prestigious Saint George award.

The film exudes a contagious energy that reflects the zeitgeist of a generation according to critics, cited by Euronews.

“Sneakers” tells the story of six young people trying escape from the failures in their families, love lives and ambitions, fleeing the big city to settle at the quiet sea coast.

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Sting, the world renowned pop star, delighted nearly 15 000 spectators with a two hour concert at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia.

He performed together with Sofia‘s philharmonic orchestra, one of the most illustrious symphonic orchestras in Europe, presenting symphonically re-orchestrated versions of 23 of his best known songs, covering all periods from his 23-year career.

This is the second time Sting has performed with the Bulgarian orchestra, after it played with him in Bucharest.

The set opened with Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic hits like Every Breath You Take, Shape of my heart, Englishman in New York and Moon over Bourbon Street.

Sting surprised his fans by announcing a 20-minute break in Bulgarian during the concert.

The gig was part of the 10th edition of the Arena Muzika festival, organized by Sofia Music Enterprises, which also featured Swedish pop duo Roxette. The concert was also a part of Sting‘s ongoing and hugely successful Symphonicity Tour, which includes the musician’s greatest hits with symphonic arrangement.

This was the British legend’s third concert in Bulgaria.

The first one was in 1996 in Sofia and the second took place in Nessebar at the country’s seaside , when about 20,000 people gathered.

“Goodbye Mama“, a movie directed by controversial Italian-based actress Michelle Bonev, has been described by Italian media as a complete failure.

The movie was released in 80 Italian theaters but earned a mere EUR 65 000 in the first days after its premiere, Deutsche Welle points out. Only 9 000 Italians dared to watch it.

“Pathetic” and “pretentious” are some of the words used to describe Bonev’s movie, the Ansa agency goes further and calls it a “crime”.

Ever since Bonev received the first ever “Action for Women’”award at the prestigious Venice movie fest in 2010,”‘Farewell Mom’” had not been shown anywhere. The award itself, however, triggered massive media scandals in both Bulgaria and Italy, as it turned out to have been fabricated especially for her courtesy of her “friends”, Italy‘s PM Silvio Berlusconi, and former Culture Minister, Sando Bondi.

Bulgaria’s Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov already accepted two resignations over the case, handed by Alexander Donev, head of the Bulgarian National Film Center and Bulgaria’s Deputy Culture Minister, Dimitar Derelviev, as it turned out the country’s state budget has contributed with BGN 300 000 for Bonev’s ‘mysterious’ movie. A 40-strong Bulgarian delegation, headed by Rashidov, enjoyed a luxurious dinner party in Venice to celebrate Bonev’s phantom award.

Italian taxpayers contributed with an additional EUR 1 M to the controversial movie.

Bulgaria’s brand new festival for pop and rock music, Elevation, will have its first edition in June and will be staged in the southwestern town of Razlog.

At a press conference on Thursday, the organizers announced that Elevation 2011 will take place on June 24-25 and will feature international and Bulgarian musicians.

The headliners will be announced in several weeks. According to Boris Milanov from the Bulgarian promotion company Symphonics Entertainment, their participation has been negotiated at 99%.

“We are talking about a big pop funk band, a big rap band and a pop singer,” Milanov said.

So far, the organizers have announced several participants – 30 Seconds to Mars, Hurts, Gentleman & The Evolution, Parov Stelar, Cyanna and Dog Eat Dog.

The Bulgarian bands Odd Crew, Sepuko 6 and Monyx will also take part in the first edition of the new festival.

One of the organizers, Alexandar Evtimov, said that the crew is negotiating with several companies to provide direct transport from large Bulgarian cities to Razlog. A camp will also be staged near the festival.

The mayor of Razlog, Krasimir Gerchev, confirmed that the municipality had negotiated the cooperation of all institutions that will take care the festival runs without accidents.

The organizers said they want to make Elevation the biggest music festival on the Balkans.

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British rock legend – singer Joe Cocker will hold his first ever concert in Bulgaria on May 28th, 2011, organizers Balkan Entertainment announced Friday.

The concert will take place in the capital Sofia “Festivalna” Hall.

Grammy winner Cocker, whose career spans over six decades, is to perform his all-time hit singles such as You’re So Beautiful, Unchain My Heart and You Can Leave Your Hat On along with songs from his latest album Hard Knocks (2010).

Cocker’s tour is dedicated to the new album which climbed to the top of the German charts as soon as it was released.

Tickets range between BGN 80 and 100 and will be on sale beginning February 14 through Eventim.

The news is yet to be confirmed by the singer’s official site.