Girls with richly decorated with braids and embroideries dresses and boys with belts tightly wrapped around their waists filled the stage of the IX World Championship of Folklore "World Folk" in the summer of 2019.

The main role in our video today have the Vice Champions of Folklore for 2019 - the dancers from the Children's-youth dance ensemble "Kyustendilche" at the Municipal Children's Complex - Kyustendil, Bulgaria. 

Folklore group was founded in 1997. Art director of the group is Rangel Madzharski. The repertoire of "Kyustendilche" includes dances from all the ethnographic areas of Bulgaria. Performers won the Golden medal and a nomination for the Grand Prix Golden "Orpheus". They were ranked second in the final standings of the World Championship of Folklore in 2019 and received the Silver medal and the Silver "Orpheus" of the championship.

The video shows moments from their dances, typical for the region of Kyustdendil and the Shopluka. 

Distinctive to women's folklore clothing in this region is the presence of pafti (belt buckles) - metal ornaments that tie around the waist of the girls. "Pafti"are made of cast or wrought iron, often painted. The women's costume is full of colors, the folk embroideries are concentrated in the lower part of the dress, around the neck, along the ends of the long shirt and along the sleeves.

The men's costume of the folklore region of Shopluka is characterized by a long white shirt made of cotton and embellished with fine embroidery around the collar. As you can see from the video, the belt is an integral part of authentic men's clothing - it is usually made of wool and can be in red or black. The waistcoat elongates the figure and emphasizes masculinity. The trousers are called "benevretsi" in this region. Their cut is narrow and the embroideries are centered at the bottom of the legs. Men from this ethnographic area of Bulgaria also wore hats, named kalpak.

Follow the "tsarvouls" (leather sandals with blunt tips tied onto feet with long cords), with which the performers of "Kyustendilche" are getting their lively dance steps!