Some of the brightest theatrical events from Bulgaria, Kosovo, and North Macedonia were part of the first edition of the Balkan Theatre Festival, organized by the "Nikola Vaptsarov" Drama Theatre which took place from October 24 to 29, 2022, in the city of Blagoevgrad. During the event, eight performances were played on three stages.

A parallel program was also scheduled, which was accessible online for the audience.

The festival opened with the premiere performance for Blagoevgrad's theater, titled "The Boy in the Last Row" by Juan Mayorga, directed by Tea Sugareva-Savova.

Within the festival, the audience had the opportunity to watch the following performances: "The Cry of an Angel" by Hristo Mutafchiev (monodrama), "Dani and the Deep Blue Sea" by the City Theatre "Bekim Fehmiu" (Prizren, Kosovo), "Nirvana" by Konstantin Iliev (Theatre 199 "Valentin Stoychev"), "Oxygen" by Ivan Viripaev (National Theatre Bitola), "House for Sheep and Dreams" – monodrama by Zdrava Kamenova (Organization for Contemporary Art and Culture "36 Monkeys"), "A Bulgarian Woman" by Snezhina Petrova, based on the story by Ivan Vazov (Association "Legal Art Center"). The festival concluded with the performance "Amadeus" by Peter Shaffer at the Drama Theatre "Stoyan Bachvarov" in Varna.

The parallel program included a project fair with online streaming of table readings by actors, prepared by three young directors – Nikolay Yordanov, Nadya Pancheva, and Lyubomir Kolaksazov.

The finale of the Balkan Theatre Festival was presented with 3D mapping on Georgi Izmirliev Square in Blagoevgrad, created by the artist Nikola Nalbantov.

The festival was realized with financial support from the Ministry of Culture, the National Culture Fund - "Competition for Subsidies for Projects of National Significance for 2022," and with the cooperation of the Municipality of Blagoevgrad.