969 - Martin Wirth, "Volksfest in den Rhodopen", Bulgaria, fairground amid conifers with spit roast, 1988

Martin Wirth, "Volksfest in den Rhodopen", Bulgaria, fairground amid conifers with spit roast, 1988 (1939 – 2017 Ilsenburg), watercolour over pencil on card, signed and dated (19)88 lower right, titled verso "Volksfest in den Rhodopen", festival ground in a forest clearing beneath tall conifers, on the left guests at long tables with red tablecloths under pavilions with pointed roofs, in the centre a man serving, on the right spit roasts over an open fire in front of a wooden hut, wooden barrels in the foreground, good condition commensurate with age, edges slightly stained and cockled, image 36x48 cm (HxW) The Rhodope Mountains extend from southern Bulgaria into northern Greece; in their higher western part firs, spruces and pines dominate the forests. According to legend the singer Orpheus was born in these mountains, and the region maintains a lively folk music tradition to this day. At the folklore gathering at Rozhen, held every four years in August, an orchestra of a hundred Rhodope bagpipes, the kaba gaida, performs. Martin Wirth from Darlingerode (today part of Ilsenburg) captured the festival in the Bulgarian mountains in 1988 as a travel watercolour.