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July Morning is an annual Bulgarian festival, celebrated on the night before and the first day of July. The festival is unique to Bulgaria but it is not universally observed in the country.
In the days before the first day of July, people from across Bulgaria travel (often hitchhiking) to the Black Sea coast to meet the first sun rays on the first day of July. People gather around fires, play music and wait for the sunrise. There is no mandatory ritual, ceremony or rite for this tradition and it is up to participants' discretion how they spend the night before July 1st. On many locations, there are concerts with professional and amateur bands. Camping at the locations of choice for the July Morning celebration is also very popular.
Initially, celebrants gathered on Pier 1 in Port of Varna East; now the vigil takes place on beaches as well. In recent years, it has spread to Kamen Bryag, Kavarna, Shkorpilovtsi, Irakli, Burgas, Sozopol, Varvara, Ahtopol, Chernomorets as well as the whole Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
There were many attempts to commercialise the tradition by various parties – municipal authorities, concert promoters, etc. – trying to organise July Morning festivals and specials. All such attempts failed, possibly due to the lack of a single location of celebrations, or commercial organisations failing to condemn some of the celebrations' more "questionable" activities.[citation needed] Most recently, in 2012 some 12,000 people met the sunrise at Kamen Bryag where the song "July Morning" was performed by ex-Uriah Heep's singer John Lawton.