Romania gets ready to revel

One of the best known events on Romania's summer festival calendar is Anonimul International Independent Film Festival, which will take place between August 10 and 16 in Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta.

Around 5,000 spectators are expected to show up for this eclectic festival. To get there, you will most likely have to take a boat, making it a slightly more unconventional and exclusive venue than you might find at the average film festival.

The festival will keep its competitive structure, which includes feature-length movies, fictional short films and animation shorts. It will also retain its Eco program in which it presents recent productions about the global problems that humankind faces today.

The production that will open the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival is Los Abrazos Rotos/Broken Embraces by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, a picture that was in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

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The festival will keep the parallel program that it started last year, called Actors Behind the Camera, in which it showcases movies directed by well-known thespians such as Helen Hunt, Sarah Polley, Kenneth Branagh, Bob Hoskins, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor and Andrew Lauer.

The following week it is the turn of Transylvania Calling 2009, a biennial festival of electronic music and contemporary arts that will take place between August 18 and 25 in the mountains of Transylvania, close to Gura Raului in Sibiu county.

This year 135 artists from 65 countries will be invited to play in front of a crowd of approximately 3,000. The gates will be opened on the 18th at 11.11 exactly. However, the festival will only begin the next day with an opening ceremony with shows and music from all over the world.

The festival promotes Sibiu as a tourist destination, and also encourages environmentally-friendly attitudes by recycling electronic equipment, and providing organic and vegetarian food. In addition to this, organizers say, “It promotes Romania in a hitherto unknown light.”

The first two days of the festival will include conferences, workshops, games, movies and social interaction. All in all, there will be four days and four night of music: world, downbeat, upbeat, dub, ambient and experimental.

Earlier in the month, the focus is on Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle, near Brasov. Between August 7 and 9 the castle will host Bran Castle Fest, a 72-hour event with theater, movies, music and laser projections on the castle's walls.

In the spirit of the venue's spooky associations, the event will take place in the only weekend with a full moon in August. The festival is organized to promote the castle as a tourist destination.

The concerts and shows will take place on two stages: one of them in the yard of the castle and the other on the plateau at the back. Movies will be screened in a special tent.

The festival will gather theater troops and music bands from Romania, England and France. In total, over 80 artists are expected to perform during the festival: DJs, actors, painters, and creators of video projections.

The music set will include chill out, techno and medieval music. The event is organized by the Company for the Administration of Bran Castle and by EuroUrban.

Last but not least, you will not have to travel far to attend the first festival dedicated to diversity in contemporary arts. The Sirnaville Arts & Crafts Festival will be taking place 40 km from Bucharest, near the runway of the Aerofox Aerodrome in Sirna, Prahova county, between August 14 and 16. Organizers are expecting between 2,000 and 3,000 people to show up at the venue.

Emilia Topolica, project manager, says the festival is designed as an exchange of creative experiences, a place out of time where people can come and experience creativity. “People will have the opportunity to create their own paintings, sculptures and drawings; they will be able to create different objects and accessories – and everything will be handmade!” she says.

The most important guest of the festival is the European champion of acrobatic air-shows, Zoltan Veres, who will perform on August 15.

“We planned this first edition to gather some of the best music our local scene has to offer, although not all artists are mainstream acts. For future editions we are considering inviting international guests, but we'd be selecting them on the same criteria,” says Topolica.

The biggest live acts at the first edition of Sirnaville are local names such as URMA, Suie Paparude, Kumm and Blazzaj – headliners for the alternative/indie music stage supported by OneDay.

On the bass music stage, which will host drum & bass, break-beat, trip-hop sets, Dudu and MC Tine, MC Beand and others have been invited to entertain the Sirnaville citizens.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro