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The Plovdiv fair
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A trade centre of long standing,
Plovdiv
became Bulgaria's principal marketplace during the 1870s, when the railway between Europe and Istanbul was completed and the great annual fair held at Uzundzhovo since the sixteenth century was moved here. Plovdiv's first international trade fair (1892) was a rather homespun affair - a man from Aitos proposed to show his hunting dogs, while Bohemia exhibited beehives - but since 1933 the event has gone from strength to strength, and nowadays claims to be the largest of its kind in the Balkans. There are actually two annual
fairs
: the spring event, devoted to consumer goods in early May, and the larger autumn industrial fair, during the second half of September. Both are held at the complex on the north bank of the river. Members of the public are free to come along, and there's a special bus service laid on between the train station and the fairground. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Bulgaria,
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