Elena will host the Elena Ham Festival from 16 to 18 October 2026. The three-day programme includes concerts, culinary demonstrations, crafts, children\u2019s games and the traditional Race for an Elena Ham.<\/p>\n
The festival begins on Hristo Botev Square. Performances by the Balkandzhiyche folk group and Elenika folk dance club start at 17:00, followed by a concert by Nelina at 18:00. The evening continues with DJ Svetlyo.<\/p>\n
The official opening takes place at 11:00 on Hristo Botev Square, hosted by Iskren Petsov. The programme includes folk and musical performances, culinary demonstrations and a children\u2019s area at the open-air cinema from 11:00 to 16:00.<\/p>\n
The Race for an Elena Ham starts at 14:00 on the sports ground beside the Art Gallery. Registration is open to adults in good physical condition and closes after 15 applications. Applications can be sent to obrazovanie@elena.bg<\/a> and by telephone on 0879 101 458, according to the organisers.<\/p>\n The folk programme on Hristo Botev Square begins at 11:00. A demonstration of traditional butchery is planned around Bakalov House, while the children\u2019s area at the open-air cinema will again be open from 11:00 to 16:00.<\/p>\n The organisers are Elena Municipality and the Local Tourism Council. Visitors should follow the organisers\u2019 channels for any programme changes.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong> Municipal Tourist Information Centre \u2013 Elena<\/a>; DarikNews, 12 October 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Illustrative photograph of a platter of cold cuts and cheeses: Rafael Pedroso \/ Unsplash. The photograph is not from the Elena Ham Festival.<\/small><\/p>\n Unsplash \u2014 Rafael Pedroso<\/a> \u00b7 Unsplash License<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The three-day Elena Ham Festival runs from 16 to 18 October. See the main times, locations and programme highlights.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oblastta","category-polezno","category-sabitiya","tag-aktualno"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sunday, 18 October<\/h2>\n
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