Besides the upsurge of festivals that Bucharest has seen over the past years, Romania is home to many other arts& music festivals catering to the hippest and edgiest of audiences.
One of the oldest-standing such event is the Transylvania International Film Festival, scheduled to take place this year between May 29th and June 7th in Cluj Napoca. Established in 2002, it was the first international film festival in Romania and has its 14th edition approaching. The multitude of screenings, events and concerts, outstanding films selection and high-spirited atmosphere make it a go-to event each year for cinema die-hards and newbies alike. It is the event at which the most important domestic productions are released nationally, from Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu to Alexandru Maftei’s Miss Christina. Over the years, it awarded many personalities of European and worldwide film, such as Julie Delpy, Vanessa Redgrave, Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Cardinale, Wim Wenders, Jacqueline Bisset, Geraldine Chaplin or Jiri Menzel, who came to Cluj to collect their distinction.
Classical music lovers will get their share of entertainment when the George Enescu Festival begins in Bucharest in September. Running once every two years, the festival is expected to bring this year around 2,500 foreign artists and 500 national artists at 58 concerts. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra will play at this year’s event for the first time, led by conductor Sir Simon Rattle. Other top orchestra lined up for the 2015 edition are: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, San Francisco Symphony, Munchen Opera Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Sankt Petersburg Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Bayerische Staatoper, Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra and Monte Carlo Philharmonic while the Romanian side will be represented by the National Youth Orchestra, George Enescu Choir and Orchestra Philharmonic and the Radio Hall National Orchestra with the Radio Academic Choir. Among artists headlining the event are: Anne Sophie Mutter, Fazil Say, Murray Perahia, Yfrem Bronfman, Andras Schiff, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Maria Joao Pires, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, David Garett, Alexandra Dariescu and Janine Jansen. Subscriptions to the event sold out the day they were put on sale but individual tickets are still available on eventim.ro.
On the other side of the musical spectrum comes the Electric Castle Festival, getting ready for is third run this year. It is held on the domain of the Bontida Banffy Castle, close to Cluj-Napoca, and documented since the 16th century. It offers participants all-day urban activities, ranging from extreme sports to audio-video production workshops, and a variety of electronic music, all set in a historical location. This year over 150 artists are expected to line up. You can get there by car, with buses running from Cluj to the location over the duration of the festival or by train (to Cluj-Napoca).
As far as theater experiences are concerned, the Sibiu International Theater Festival has become, during the 19 years since its establishment, a landmark for attendees in more than 68 countries. This year the festival is scheduled to run from June 12th to the 21st. Besides the performances shown over the span of ten days, the festival hosts the Sibiu BookFest fair and the Visual Arts Platform supported by Romanian graphic artist Dan Perjovschi.
A similarly long tradition has the Garana Jazz Festival, taking place for 18 years now in the village of Garana, in Caras-Severin county. It is Europe’s only open-air jazz festival and the lineups worth the travel. The location can be reached by car, within 50 Km from the Timisoara airport, or by train, within 20 minutes from the Resita train station. Artists stopping so far at Garana included: Eberhard Weber, Mike Stern, Jan Garbarek, Charles Lloyd, John Abercrombie, Miroslav Vitous, Zakir Hussain, Bugge Wesseltoft, Lars Danielsson, Avishay Cohen or Nils Petter Molvær
Another open-air festival, this time of alternative music and located close to Bucharest, on the Stirbey domain, is Summer Well. It is at about half-an-hour drive from the capital and usually gathers top names, as previous years’ Bastille or Placebo. The two day event is set for August 8th and 9th of this year.
And to cover even more of musical tastes comes Rokolective, at its tenth edition this year. Focused on abstract electronic music, the festival will run from April 23rd to April 26th and line up around 25 artists. The opening night is taken by Aisha Devi (previously known as Kate Wax) and other confirmed artists are Fatima Al Qadiri, Objektand Abdulla Rashim, and appearances by Ninos Du Brasil, Lena Willikens and Mondkopf. The event is set in venues such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art MNAC or Halele Carol.