It’s hard to call Bulgaria “unique”. Our ethnic identity is hugely influenced by the Ottoman Empire and all neighboring peoples with whom we shared cuisine, clothes, words, songs, traditions, and lifestyle. That is why, while appearing exotic to a foreigner’s eye, every Balkan country “feels like home” to a Bulgarian, and vice versa.

The second half of the 20th century is when our ways parted. While Greece got a place in the Modern West, and Yugoslavia experimented with “the best of both worlds”, Romania and Bulgaria were solidified behind the Iron Curtain. Western music, dressing, and hairstyles were strictly forbidden and severely punished. Every Bulgarian family has a story of a relative having their head shaved for looking “too Beatles”. People were forced to labor camps for less.

Fortunately, that didn’t stop Bulgarian baby boomer degens (they were truly called “degens” by the communist governments). They started to secretly exchange music, tailor “Beatles clothes” from smuggled Western magazines, and privately call each other by Western names. Bootleg music records were mass-produced out of discarded x-rays, while DIY antennas were built to access Radio Free Europe and other dissident media. Like so many times over human history, music and art became the spark that brought about a longing for change.

Inspired by Uriah Heep’s song “July Morning”, almost completely forgotten in the West by that time, our mothers and fathers invented their own holiday tradition. They started gathering on Black Sea beaches and hilltops to honor the sunrise on the 1st of July and “the strength of a new day dawning”!

The song, of course, was forbidden to play in Bulgaria, but the government couldn’t do anything about it. Though, it was not about Uriah Heep per se. The Bulgarian rebel subculture was a colorful mix made from hippies, rockers, metals, punks, anarchists, and everything in between. It was a tradition of honoring liberty, democracy, autonomy, love, and peace.

It was about making a campfire, playing the guitar, and singing throughout the night, so you can feel truly free for the first time in your life. 

It is no surprise that the underground culture played a significant role in the rebuilding of Bulgaria. When the communist regime collapsed, the same people who were breathing freedom before it was legal were the most respected to be in charge of our next steps as a society. 

That’s why July Morning is still honored even today. Rave parties, rock concerts, and camps gather thousands of people around the whole country, to pay respect to the degens who were brave enough to stand against the oppression of the morally corrupt tyrants. 

It’s needless to say that we, the ETHSofia team, are sons and daughters of free-breathing July Morning degens too. We are the ones who will carry on The Torch of Liberty into the next century. Maybe not with rock music from the 70s, but with the ideas of a decentralized economy, censorship resistance, and crypto punk. 

On this most Bulgarian holiday, we invite you to join the most cypherpunk event of the year and celebrate freedom and sovereignty with us! See you at ETHSofia!