The annual "white night" of Plovdiv will be take place on September 23-24 this year, with dozens of venues and events scheduled for the duration of the festival.

Night/Plovdiv's twelfth edition will include five main sub programs: Museums and Galleries; Culture and Club; City and Public Spaces; Little Night (adapted to the needs of the youngest visitors) and Open Arts.

"The idea is for the audience to encounter artists, art and culture in unusual evening and late-night hours," Night/Plovdiv's website says.

The Night of Museums and Galleries festival was held for the first time in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-biggest city, in 2005, initiated by a family that owns Sariev, an art gallery in the city. The first ever night offered 20 events that were attended by around 3000 people.

Since 2007, it has been organized by the Open Arts Foundation that was set up by the same family, with the assistance of America for Bulgaria Foundation and Plovdiv Municipality.

Night/Plovdiv has also "managed to put on the map national, regional, commercial and non-profit structures" some of which have been little known to the public previously.

"The great interest to the event helps projects debuted in the festival having a successful development afterwards."

More information about the specific events is expected to follow on Night/Plovdiv's website.

Last year's more than 100 events involved art, music, opera and even archaeology in over than 70 locations around the city.

Plovdiv is to be a European Capital of Culture 2019 along side Italy's Matera.