Night of museums and galleries (Plovdiv) Night of museums and galleries (Plovdiv) The Long Night of Museums was held for the first time in Berlin in 1997. Since then a similar format has been adopted all over the continent under different names. Today more than 120 cities in Europe organize their local "Night", an event which has turned into popular cultural events. "The Night of Museums" in Bulgaria was held for the first time on 30 September 2005 in the city of Plovdiv. It is now called Share the Night and is three days of art performances in galleries, cafes, and public spaces all over the
Plovdiv is the second or the third-largest cosmopolitan city inhabited by Bulgarians, after Sofia and possibly Varna. According to the 2001 census, out of a population of 338,224 inhabitants, the Bulgarians numbered 302,858 (90%). Stolipinovo in Plovdiv is the largest Roma neighbourhood in the Balkans, having a population of around 20,000 alone; further Roma ghettos are Hadji Hassan Mahala and Sheker Mahala. Therefore, the census number is a deflation of the number of Roma people, and they are most likely the second-largest group after the Bulgarians, most of all because the Muslim Roma in Plovdiv claim to be of Turkish ethnicity