Pride of Place – Glenn Hughes mural near Kavarna’s central square
If you ever make it to the Bulgarian Black Sea coastal town of Kavarna, you’ll likely find yourself staring at this two-and-a-half story high mural of heavy metal journeyman Glenn Hughes which graces a building just up the block from city hall near one of the city’s main squares. Further up the block you’ll find yourself standing between a giant shirtless Billy Idol and a crooning John Lawton of Uriah Heep fame.
This heavy metal urban beautification is the brainchild of Mayor Tsonko Tsonev, whose primary quest since taking office has been to turn this city of 12,000 into Bulgaria’s rock capital. By any measure he’s been wildy successful.
An avid hard rock and heavy metal fan, Tsonev has attracted dozens of top metal bands to his hometown –Deep Purple, Motörhead, Manowar, The Scorpions, and Robert Plant among them– as part of the annual Kaliakra Rock Fest, later renamed the Kavarna Rock Fest.
How deep is his passion? In October 2010 Tsonev unveiled the world’s only statue memorializing former Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio. The 250 kilogram bronze, dedicated just five months after Dio’s death, has pride of place in the center of the city’s main park.
Ronnie James Dio memorial in Kavarna
More of the murals are below. Can anyone help with the name of the Bulgarian musician?
Related articles
Thanks for sharing Kavarna’s famous building, Piran! Tsonko Tsonev is not a saint at all and there’s lots of destruction of the nature around his town in favor of some fat investors, but indeed he did transform Kavarna into a really nice place!
The name of the Bulgarian singer is Emil Trifonov (better known as ‘Kembalat”) – he was an important entertainer and organiser of the festivals in Kavarna, who died in a car crash 5 years ago.
Greetings from another Bulgarian photographer wandering around Earth,
Vlad
Thanks, Vlad for the help with Trifonov, much appreciated. I wondered about the environmental impact of some of the development around the city.
Pingback: The Beatles in Punta Arenas (Pic de Jour) | piran café
I’m not sure exactly why but this weblog is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later
and see if the problem still exists.
http://godsavesispend.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/last-years-concerts-7-kavarna-rock-festival/
Cool, excellent!