IFCTP "Zero Gravity"

North International Amateur Theatres Festival /NIATF/ „Zvezden prah“ was a slide-rule international cultural event in Bulgaria, that we created with the special mission to organize distinctive environment  for development of the modern theatrical art, to create a centre, in which people can find a place for artistic appearance, for cultural enrichment and artistic exchange, a space, in which varied forms of cultural expression are accepted and encouraged.

For a detailed realization of this idea, a change in the model of the festival concept was needed and the Organizing committee decided ten years after its creation to change „Zvezden prah“ into a free cultural space for contemporary theatre and performance – IFCTP „Zero gravity“.

In the original intention the festival is a non-comercial cultural product with indisputable educational, social, mind and the social adjustments changing effect. Its appearance is no coincidence. The idea and initiative for its creation is lined by over a hundred year tradition in the amateur theatrical art in the town of Knezha. Since 1896, with presenting the „Suffering Genoveva“ play until nowadays, almost with no interruptions, in the town is developed a very active theatrical activity. Several generations of artists have performed on the stage of the Cultural Center and have created unforgettable images and played exciting spectacles. And so, with self-esteem and assured in our lively cause, in 2008 we organized the format, with the cooperation of the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and the Bulgarian association of amateur theatres. Throughout the first three years of its existence we rather tried to learn the specific environment of the amateur theatrical art, that is insufficiently developed in our country and comparatively weakly presented on the international stage. The art policy, that we stick to, used to stress on presenting a placard of the best spectacles of the amateur theatrical groups, in addition with a parallel program of bright cultural events.

In 2011, „Zvezden prah“ was recognised as a national cultural forum, that annually attends in the cultural calendar of the Ministry of Culture.

From 2012 to 2015 the festival is international and is supported by the cooperation of the European center of the amateur theatre /AITA/IATA/. And in september 2015 it became a full-plegded member of the Bulgarian Festival association and a part of the European festival association. Throughout the past nine years it is realized with the financial support of „America for Bulgaria“, Municipality Knezha and the USA Embassy in Bulgaria. A major media partner of the event for the last four years is Bulgarian National Television /BNT/.

In 2013, as a result of our experience and with all the successes and mistakes, we organized and applied new methodically and conceptually sustained scheme, including three equal modules: theatrical program, attendant program and artistic workshops. Our festival experience and the widened international contacts gave us a reason to look for new conceptual growth accordingly to the the vanguard international cultural practices and models.

And so while preparing the tenth anniversary edition, the Organizing committee decided to apply a construction of a new festival model– International Festival for Contemporary Theater and Performance /IFCTP/ „Zero gravity“ Knezha 2017.