5:30PM Door ✖ Hall ✖ $12 ADV/ $15 DOS / $5 kids (12 & under) ✖ All Ages

Celebrate Spring Bulgarian-style with a dance party, featuring live music by Mila Vocal Ensemble, Nomadi, Orkestar Bez Ime, and Traki, aka “The Niks”!

Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), Mila Vocal Ensemble, Traki and Nomadi proudly present Martenitsa, an annual Balkan celebration of Spring— now at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul. What started as a small underground gathering of Balkan music-obsessed fans and the local Bulgarian community has grown into a massive Balkan dance party! Each group will perform both individually and collaboratively to celebrate not only Martenitsa but also Bulgarian Independence Day.

Martenitsa is a musical celebration of the coming of Spring and the holiday of Baba Marta (baba meaning “grandma,” and Marta a derivative of the word for “March”) Traditional folklore depicts Baba Marta as a temperamental old woman whose moods are as changeable as March weather. On March 1st, it is customary to exchange and wear Martenitsi—tokens of good health, luck and vitality. Wearing the red and white yarns of the Martenitsa symbolizes the hope that Baba Marta will smile and grant us an early spring. As we Minnesotans know, the end of Winter can never come soon enough.