The petrol station attendant swears that it is a statue of him in his prime; red toe nails and all?

Back in town later in the afternoon I archive some of the photographs, videos etc. while L and B go into town. They run across a Roma couple that B knows. She remembers them having a ‘dancing bear’ and asks them about it. The couple are actually brother and sister and used to tour with the bear until Vier Pfoten from Austria started to buy up all the bears to put them in a reservation near Velingrad. Brigitte Bardot provided much of the funding and lent her name to the project. According to their account they signed an agreement to sell the bear for €1,000 with a subsidiary clause that prevents them ever owning a bear again. They say they only received half of the promised money and now travel around for part of the year, playing music in the street, making about €10 a day and undertaking the long journey to visit the bear about once a month. Meanwhile the bears (all 24 of them) are treated to a retirement in a €2.5 million installation which costs over €10,000 per head per annum to run.

We arrange to meet them in Stara Zagora on the 5th because tomorrow they are going to visit their bear in its retirement home.

In the late afternoon there are many folk-dance groups on stage in the main square. They come from all the neighbouring countries including Turkey. The Russian group no longer appears in folk costume but presents modern dance in contemporary costume, apparently making a break with the communist representational symbol of folk culture as a vehicle for ‘international understanding and cooperation’.