Festival Season

Ten years ago it was the warped tour, five years ago it was the Finger Lakes wine festival, and last weekend it was AdFel, a festival of unconventional advertising.  In between, some of my personal favorites included Bonnarroo, grassroots, and Jazz Freedom.  Summer time is festival time and since the warped tours of my teenage years, summer festivals have always proved to be unique experiences that produce some lasting memories.  Though my favorites always seem to be the music festivals (warped, bonnarroo, peninsula) there are other types of festivals that I have also enjoyed over the years (harvest festival, wine fest, beer fest, adfel). 

Whatever the reason for celebration, summer seems to be the time to do it.  Up until this year I never really noticed that summer time is the festival season.  From the time I moved to Bucharest in September 2011 I have been constantly keeping my ears and eyes open, searching for fun things to do.  Admittedly it was kind of slow at first.  I didn’t know where to look to find things that I would find interesting.  When summertime came suddenly there were always things going on and everything lasting more than one day was called a festival. 

Adding to the excitement of summer and upcoming festivities, a large part of my position as volunteer coordinator at MaiMultVerde (MMV) was to actually work at some of those festivals.  This perk to my job at MMV was a pleasant surprise when the warm weather started rolling around.  I remembered a desire I used to have to work for free festival tickets as a volunteer at Bonnarroo and here I was, doing just that, at festivals in and around Bucharest.  I was responsible for arranging and coordinating volunteers at a MMV stand at four festivals.  At the stand we gave away some of our annual reports, sold greeting cards to raise funds for a tree-planting activity, and at times we rented out bicycles.  Pulling from MaiMultVerde’s large community of volunteers I was able to schedule shifts at the stands so that not only did we sell stuff and promote MMV, but we all had opportunities to walk around the festival and enjoy what others were offering. 

View from our stand

Festival season began with Femei pe Matasari.  Matasari is a street in Bucharest known for its shady characters and prostitution.  As the story goes, a local photographer moved into a house on the street and wanted to bring attention to the situation there in a positive way.  By doing this he started the festival Femei pe Matasari which means “the women on Matasari street”.  The festival itself is a kind of an art festival bringing together local artist exhibiting and selling their goods, and NGO’s recruiting people and gaining support in the community.  A stage was located at the end of the street as each day’s activities culminated in a musical performance after the sun went down.  The MMV stand had prime location across the street from the festival house, under a wave of suspended umbrellas, and next to a large patch of grass brought in for relaxation purposes.  The cicloteque bikes were the hit of our stand but we did end up selling quite a bit with our prime locations in a high-traffic area. 

Recicloniada was a hot Friday afternoon under a small tent spraying cool mist over me.  Ok that wasn’t it.  Yet again we had our annual reports and greeting cards laid out next to our plastic collection container resembling a tree trunk.  I sat there with Elvy, an active MMV volunteer and good friend since my early days at the NGO and Cristina, a fresh new face on the MaiMultVerde volunteer team.  A chat about Zdob si Zdub commenced soon after I noticed her strong Moldovan accent.  We sat, awaiting customers that for the most part didn’t come, and of course a concert that I had to miss for previous engagements.  The evening replacements actually made for a fairly successful Friday.  The festival itself was put on by the organization leading Romania in its efforts to collect recyclable material, Eco-Rom Ambalaje.  A free, day-long festival in the middle of Bucharest featuring some pretty well known bands was there way of getting the word out.  Actually, I can’t say that the show was free.  Entrance fee was 10 recyclable items making for a clean old city center. 

B’Est Fest stands for Bucharest Fest and it is in its third or forth year at this point.  It could possibly be the largest music festival in Bucharest even though this year it wasn’t exactly in Bucharest.  Tunari, a small village just beyond the northern boundary of the city hosted the festival this year and a tent there hosted yours truly.  MaiMultVerde was located in Green Village at the festival, though few would know.  Green Village, within sight of the main stage, was not necessarily within sight of the spectators who strolled by without noticing the stands, bright colors, bikes, and green of the tent off to the side.  Organizers of Green Village attempted to attract attention to the area by setting up an autograph series there but the only musician to actually show up when they were supposed to was a friendly young singer named Millow who gained his fame from covering a Justin Timberlake tune.  The long festival hours over the course of several days allowed for much participation on the part of MMV volunteers and during the few-day festival I had a chance not only to work with some volunteers that I knew well from previous activities, but also some new faces that will hopefully continue to take part in MMV’s actions.  Despite the weak traffic at our stand the volunteers were determined to get the word out and they took materials out of our tent to the crowds of festival goers to make the weekend’s fundraising a success.  Music highlight of B’Est included Garbage (never-ever thought I’d see this band), Subcarpati, and Caro Emerald (great show). 

Adfel Festival is a festival of unconventional advertising.  The festival itself was quite unconventional as it took place at a restaurant/club.  MMV was located off to the side in the sandy kids play area.  Though at times it seemed like a location off to the side and out of sight, with a little help from the organizers and some determination on the part of our volunteers we ended up succeeding with raising some funds.  Our stand made a strong call against the desertification of Romania by calling on the public to help us plant trees in order to avoid the looming threat of water shortages and sandstorms.  In the process they could take a picture as a Bedouin with his camel to try and foreshadow the unfavorable conditions if we continue cutting down trees.  I found the whole bit to be quite nice and fun especially considering our location in the sand.  In addition to the conditions, a co-worker of mine invited his fire throwing friend by our stand to put on a pretty neat show.  Check it out below. 

And so went festival season 2012 until now.  From what I hear there is a strong possibility for some more festivals to pop up after my time here expires, namely NGO Fest.  Personally I am not an effective salesman, never was, and never felt comfortable doing it.  Maybe this is why my great volunteer colleagues and friends were more effective at selling greeting cards and trees than I.  What I could sell and actually enjoy selling are ideas that I believe it.  MaiMultVerde is one of those things that I believe in that I don’t mind selling at least a bit.  What do I mean by selling?  I saw my job at the stand as a promoter and recruiter of volunteers for the environment.  My line was usually something to the effect of “o and by the way, we’ll send you an invitation to come plant the tree that you donate”.  The rewarding experience for me is getting out and taking action, more so than dropping money into an envelope.  It is that rewarding experience that I think can make the lives of our supporters more rich and exciting, while creating more involved and dedicated volunteers for MaiMultVerde.  Plus, I had the opportunity to check out these cool summer festivals. 

iRAF

As we strolled into the venue I was taken back to the first time I laid my eyes on such a scene.  It was a dusty gray yard surrounded by red brick buildings degrading in front of your eyes.  The level of activity on the ground was far less then the speakers would care to indicate as they were pumping out tunes from Romania's oldest DJ.  This was the opening scene of a festival much like one I attended at the very same venue months before.  Looking out from the stage the performer sees a medium sized field of grey dust, the remains of the degrading foundations surrounding the area.  One of those very foundations toward the back was where some other concert goers happened to be waiting, eating, drinking.  Atop the foundation to the right is a brick building with a much larger whole in it than what I remembered from my last visit.  The main permanent feature of the grounds is a large brick tower in the center whey they were serving beer in September but since then they must have realized the roof could come down at any moment because this time the beer was located under a tent next to the tower.   The grounds were dead but it was only the beginning and we knew it would pick up once the DJ exited stage right to allow some actual musical instruments to tune up and get the show started.  In the meantime I decided to look at a photo exhibit installed on some graffitied walls to the left of the stage.

The photo exhibit was enough to get me into the cultural event at hand, more so than the film it followed anyway.  The day began with a showing of a film about the Roma Holocaust.  The topic of the film was more interesting than the film itself and I blame that on the setting.  The viewing took place an hour late in an dark underground bar on a nice summer afternoon.  Subtitles in English didn't exist and the ones in Romanian I couldn't see anyway as the statues of my eyesight continues to degrade, especially in dark places.  The photo exhibit on the other hand was located out in the sun where I could actually read its good amount of text.  The photos depicted a group of nomadic Roma from Transylvania.  If you've ever seen Roma in movies, pictures, or listened to songs romanticizing their life then these are probably the ones you've heard of. 

Vojasa, pronounced voyasa, was the first band to go on and from the start they proved not to disappoint beginning the show with just two of there members on stages playing a unique percussion opening.  From start to finish the container playing musician spat beats into the microphone bringing back memories of Ternipe on the same stage in September.  The music, very similar to Ternipe, consisted of traditional Roma tunes with more of a rock feel supporting it from behind.  Suddenly the dust pile in front of the stage was being kicked around by a good sized crowd unable to stand still in the presence of such an energetic sound.  By the end of their show, a word unknown to much of the ex-pat crowd, "Vojasa" was being chanted loudly throughout the venue.

The energy was pushed up a notch by the nights headliner band out of Belgium, Antwerp Gypsy Ska Orchestra.  A couple of days earlier I listened to one or two of their tunes online and I wasn't all that impressed by the music but I could see the energy they brought to the stage and knowing a bit about ska music from my younger punk rock days I was confident that in the moment I would dig it.  Sure enough the music just intensified my own dancing and the entire group I was with moved right up to the stage to get the full effect.  The combination of the brass section, dancing onstage, and the charismatic front man made for a show that you want to last all night.  Unfortunately they were cut off shortly after 11. 

Once again Roma music at Gradina Uranus proved to be a great show and a great experience that I hope to catch at least once more before I leave this part of the world.  Last year's Balkan Fest was in September and in the September to come I just may be roaming back through the area to catch round two of that show.  Either way I am sure to be bringing this music along with me wherever I go as music by bands like Ternipe and Mahala Rai Banda never fail to put a smile on my face and a jump in my step. 

St. Patricks Day 2012

“Everyone’s Irish on St. Paddy’s Day”.  Some people love this saying and some people hate it.  Some of the not so Irish or partly Irish like myself love it because it gives them an opportunity to celebrate, whether it be by gathering together with family at grandma’s or with friends at the pub.  It may be that the one’s that despise the phrase aren’t Irish and therefore they don’t find that they have a reason to celebrate it.  I’ve heard people in this bracket complain that people say they’re Irish on St. Patrick’s Day just for another reason to get drunk.  The others that I could see disliking the above mentioned expression are the actual 100% Irish who might see the current and sometimes belligerent interpretation of their national holiday as an attack on their culture.  While perusing facebook on the greenest day of the year I noticed that a friend of mine, whom I respect, posted a comment that showed his discontent of the holiday.  His comment made me think and examine why it is that I celebrate St. Paddy’s Day.  Eventually I’ve determined that the answer to this question more about where I come from than where my great great great grandparents came from.

Corning NY is a small town in upstate New York where workers once immigrated to the area to work in the glass-factory.  Now scientist, engineers and business-men come as all the laborers are now in China.  There is undoubtedly an Irish presence in Corning weather it be in the names of my classmates and friends (O’hare, Stack, O’Laughlin ) but maybe more evident when you see the names of some of the older bars in town (Maleys, Murphys, McKlintock).  When listening to the attendance called out in school you hear some Irish names but it by no means dominates the list like the Italian names do.  Either way, one of the neat things about Corning is that today, like many years ago, you find people from many different backgrounds.  For being a small conservative town a stone’s throw away from the middle of nowhere it does have some surprising diversity.  I suppose a lot of small towns in America is like that.

I first learned about St. Patrick’s Day at home, secondly in the church and lastly in school.  There are two things that I remember most about St. Patrick’s Day celebrations long ago and they have both been present in my last couple of celebrations, the color green and the film Darby O’Gill and the Little People.  That’s right, I didn’t say green beer.  I’m talking long ago when someone, maybe at school, introduced me to one of my all time favorite Disney films.  Check it out if you haven’t yet.  I can’t go on reminiscing about St. Patrick’s Days without mentioning my Great Grandma Mertson who when you walk into her house on the special day it’s like a new green starburst, flavor explosion for your eyes.  On top of that, the traditional corned beef and cabbage is served at her place and it really makes you feel Irish, whether you are or you’re not. 

Finally we get to the part where booze is involved.  I will admit that green beer, Jamison and Irish car bombs took a pretty central role in my St. Patty’s day celebrations of my 20’s but looking back, those were relatively few up until I came to Romania.  In Romania they don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day so the last couple holidays I spent explaining who St. Patrick was to my students then going home to watch Darby O’Gill.  Things are a bit different in Bucharest and this year I was able to have a much more thorough celebration of the Irish holiday.

First off, there are Irish in Bucharest and one of them happens to be my boss.  The Peace Corps Romania St. Patrick’s Day party kicked off the holiday with some old-school Irish tunes playing on the radio, learning to sing one and of course, pin the shamrock on the leprechaun.  Though this last part is probably not traditionally Irish, it was fun and it got people in the spirit of celebrating.  The following day the Irish Embassy scheduled a music event in center of old town featuring an Irish people-pleaser band called the Amazing Apples and a couple of other Flogging-Molly style Romanian bands (literally covering Flogging Molly songs).  After the show, traditionally dressed bagpipers toured old town with a drummer, guitar player and mandolin player.  They played their instruments, sang and danced on the floors of bars throughout old town.  This part of the evening was surely a treat.  Later on my friend Mihaela and I went to an Irish pub we haven’t been to yet to pack into the crowd for an extended evening with the Amazing Apples playing not only Irish tunes but also crowd pleasers like their Lady Gaga/MGMT mash-up.  Even though it wasn’t much like my old-time favorite Corning celebrations of St. Patrick it was still a great time and it did include that good traditional Irish music that you usually hear playing on my computer and ipod during the 5 days leading up to the holiday.

To those who can’t stand the saying “Everybody’s Irish on St. Patty’s Day” my advice to you is to live and let live.  Right, people do use it for an excuse to get drunk sometimes but lets be honest, if St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t an excuse to get drunk something else would be (Friday, happy hour, over the hump, ect.).  Secondly, I believe I read somewhere recently that the Irish are the second largest immigrant group in the United States to the Germans.  Maybe all those people saying that they’re Irish actually are, at least a bit.  What makes the US so unique is that it is a country of immigrants.  Here in Romania we celebrate Romanian holidays where we eat Romanian food dance the traditional Romanian dances and partake in some, at times strange, but interesting Romanian customs that go back centuries.  In the states you find people from all different backgrounds who celebrate in the way their parents taught them which is where they come from and may be quite different from how you were taught to celebrate.  This is one of the beauties of the US.  

Christmas Eve

To celebrate Christmas this year I decided to prepare some traditional Romanian food, salata de boeuf and sarmale.  While chopping vegetables on Christmas eve I heard some loud noises coming from the street behind my block.  I quickly grabbed my camera and headed to my balcony to film the scene below.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Merry Christmas!

Festival Balkanik

From what people have told me, living in Bucharest has its positives and its negatives.  They told me that it would seem really crowded, and it does.  They told me that it would be harder to get to know people, and it is.  They told me that it’s much hotter in the summer time, and so it is.  They also told me that there are fun things to do, and I found that one out this past weekend.  As a PCV in a new and strange place I try to keep my eye out for any possible sign that could lead to something positive.  One of those signs in my first week here happened to be advertising a Balkan music festival.

Ever since hearing Shatel in Zeynep’s car during my first trip to Turkey I’ve been a fan of the style.  Since then I have gotten into a couple other bands including the Hungarian band Ternipe.  When I saw them on the band list for Saturday I had to tell Courtney who is also a big fan.  From then on there was no question of whether we would go or not, just when we would get there.

The festival opened at two and the music began at six.  Various cultural elements were promoted on the festivals website so we decided that arriving at two and getting the full feel of the atmosphere before the music started would be the best idea.  Ternipe’s day on stage happened to be the same day of “Let's do it Romania” another activity that was a must do for the 24^th of September.  The plan was to get to the clean-up activity in the morning and finish it with enough time to make it to the festival by 2.  Of course rarely do things ever go exactly as planned.  Dragging ourselves out of the house late in the morning and the unexpectedly long transportation process left us with a re-worked plan to get picked up at the cleaning at 2.  This meant that we (Aran and I) wouldn’t end up getting back to the house to get ready for the show until 4.  Yes, I guess it takes that long to get into the center of Bucharest by two buses and walking.  Aran and I ended up arriving at the festival to meet Courtney, Dave, and Veronica with minimal time to check out the venders before the music started.  I did finally find out how much one of those awesome Roma skirts cost, 400 lei, yikes. 

Festival Highlights:

Ternipe with their quick footed dancing man, charismatic style, and background: “hop hop” “diggi do diggi diggi do” throughout many of their songs. 

 

The long haired dancing man in the crowd that we swore was American by the 1960’s hippy style dance he was showing off but ended up being Romanian. 

Getting spotted by a TV camera while holding a cup in my mouth so I could take my own video of the performance. 

Mahala Rai Banda with their 14 band members packed on the stage, large horn section, and feet-moving music.  By that time the crowed had swelled to the perfect amount of people, packing the venue but you were still able to move around easily.  

Finding Nick there and hanging out with him and his gazda from Targoviste. 

Aran’s continuous come and go as he met a group of fun people up in the front of the crowd. 

Baba Zula the mysterious headliner of the festival wearing a beanie, aviators, and a cape while playing the saz.  This music probably could have put me into a hypnotic trans if  I was paying better attention to it.  

A proper send-off

A little over two years ago I landed in Romania with a group of 37 other Americans. Eleven weeks of training later I officially became a Peace Corps volunteer(PCV) and traveled with two great PCV friends to my site. That site has since become a home away from home. Seeing the seasons change in the Jiu Valley over the past two years has been an experience like no other. Every day has its beauties and an evening rarely passes that I don't look back on the day realizing how lucky I am to have been sent here. It's been 664 days since my arrival here and this past weekend it all came around full circle to make for a slightly early but very sweet goodbye.

Day two of site visit and Parang hike #1 was a great indicator of how I would be spending my free time in the Jiu Valley. Back then, communication between Ernest and I was slow going. We both had dictionaries in hand and by the time I returned to Targoviste after the visit only one word really stuck... stana (meaning sheepfold). At that point in the language learning experience so much information was trying to enter my head all at once, therefore not much actually stayed. It was however, my first full day of communicating verbally only in Romanian. That specific hike was to Lacul Mija, a place that I have returned to several times during my stay here. This past weekend was my last weekend in the area before moving out. With a guest coming to visit on Sunday I knew that Saturday would be the last major hike as a resident of Petrosani. I found it fitting when the text message appeared on my phone suggesting Saturday's hike be Lacul Mija, ending where I started.

The forecast said rain all day in Parang. I was there and I can tell you that it didn't rain at all. Sometimes the forecast can scare people off the mountain. A colleague of mine insisted that she wanted to come but she didn't want to spend all day in the rain. Admittedly I was a bit worried about the rain, but rain alone is no good reason to stay off the mountain. It ended up being a somewhat cloudy but mostly sunny day. The best part of the Lacul Mija hike is when you round the corner to the back side of Carja peak. In that small valley the city, the pollution, the people, and the ski area all disappear. Nature’s stereo pumps the greatest hits of the spring below whose rushing waters come from nowhere it seems. Mija peak forms a bowl with just a bit of water in its center. That bowl can be seen when looking at Parang from Petrila. What can't be seen from that part of the hike are the Dacias, the maxi-taxi's, and the train, the second-hand stores, the restaurants, and the blocks, the buna ziua, ceau, and la revedere. These are all things that I've come to love in Romania but an occasional escape is a necessary part of any relationship. Like the first time on that open trail between peaks, Ernest was the guide. Unlike the first time I decided not to enter the near freezing temperatures of the lake.

The day continued. Peace Corps has been an incredible exercise in meeting people and even though I will be leaving the area soon I am still meeting new people. I recently met some great Moldovan students in town with whom I attended Petrosani Days after hanging in their dorm for a bit. Dragos came out with us for the concert and there we were, one American, one Romanian, and a bunch of Moldavians eagerly awaiting the evening’s musical entertainment. That entertainment consisted of a lot of dj, dancing, lip sinking music before the headliner Zdob si Zdub came on. I first saw Zdob si Zdub at Peninsula in August and the music instantly took me back to my punk rock fan days. The high energy rock mixed with cultural music reminded me of the ska and irish punk rock bands that I used to catch at the Vans Warped Tour. Most people I know in Petrosani are more into the dj kind of music so it was nice to be there jumping up and down to some good rock music with the Moldavians who were appreciating one of their own bands far from home. Like the students I was hanging with, Zdob si Zdub are from the Republic of Moldova.

Zdob si Zdub in Petrosani, 04 June 2011

Finally at almost one in the morning I left the concert during the encore to meet a friend at the train station who was coming in on an hour late train from Bucharest. There on the catwalk above the train tracks I watched the final fireworks show as the exploding lights rose above the largest of Petrosani's blocks in front of me. Standing there admiring the fireworks I noted how the days activities and current situation acted as a fitting send-off. So much of this experience has been an individual discovery of who I am, what is possible, and there I was alone watching the fireworks. It has been an experience in travel, seeing the world, becoming part of a new place, and there I was yet again with the tracks below me waiting for the next train to come in. It has been an experience of developing new friendships, and there I was waiting for one of my best Romanian friends to arrive. There I was with city blocks in front of me, the fireworks above, and a million memories of the past two years to smile upon.

Caroling circle

Before coming to Romania I was quite familiar with music circles. I may have joined a drum circle once or twice in my younger years but my lack of rhythm usually left me on the periphery enjoying the sounds produced by slightly more skilled musicians. One of my favorite memories of my college years took place at the Hogue's residence. I would enter the room and see at least 3 guitars, maybe some bongo drums, and whatever else they had there to make music with. The furniture was arranged around a center table and we just happened to be sitting in a circle, the music was flowing. One activity that would pop up at times was a song where we went around the room and everyone had to improvise a verse. Even though I wasn't very good at this I really liked hearing what people came up with and well, in that environment you didn't have to be good at it, it was just fun. I was reminded about these "music circles" last night when I took a nice winter walk through the park.

Over the past few weeks it has seemed like night has been falling on Petrocity so fast. Even though I have caught glimpses of the pretty lights and the evening winter activities, I haven't yet taken the time to just wander through town and enjoy the holiday spirit. I kept on telling myself when I returned home from school "tonight I'll get bundled up and take a walk through town" but when the time came it just seemed so much nicer to stay in the house. Last night the conditions were perfect.

It was about 5:30pm when I was reminded of the night's special event. Earlier yesterday, on my way to school, my Romanian teacher offered me a ride in a taxi that she was taking to school. She was on her way to rehearse some carols with students. It was in that cab when she informed me that at 6:00pm she would be in the park with some students caroling. At 5:30 I started bundling up and by 5:45 I was out the door where I quickly realized that it was a beautiful night. It wasn't super cold like it had been the day before, and it was snowing a bit. While walking through town I could feel the holiday spirit. Petrocity is decked out in Christmas lights on its main street which stretches for about 3 km. There were people doing Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, going out to restaurants, or just walking with their friends. I had a destination in mind. My destination was the park. The park in Petrocity is pretty extraordinary at the moment. It's covered in Christmas lights with the main concentration of lights at the fountain. Each light post has a speaker pumping out holiday tunes. In the center of the park you see a very large tree decorated with lights and a star at its peak. Next to the tree there is a nativity scene with some sheep there eating hay. Finally, next to the tree I saw the group of people standing together.

I expected to see something like a chorus concert. My Romanian teacher told me that other schools were involved as well. What I saw was a music circle, in fact it was a caroling circle.

I would say that caroling is big in Romania. Last year some kids came knocking on my door and as I opened it they began singing Romanian carols. I listened with a smile and I reached into my pockets. As they finished I handed them each one leu and thanked them for the holiday spirit. This year there were two big, back to back activities at my school both involving Christmas caroling. A tradition that I've heard of that I haven't had a chance to participate in is caroling on Christmas eve. People of all ages form small groups and go around to the houses of people they know where they sing Christmas carols and then they are invited in, fed delicious food, and they sip on warm wine or tuica. When I took some time to think about these traditions I realized that something similar hits close to home. These seem to be Orthodox traditions. I remembered Russian Christmas on the 7th of January going to church and the a nice dinner afterwords in the church hall. After the dinner we would come home and my parents would put cookies and drinks out on the table, we were expecting carolers. A family from the church would come by the house on every Russian Christmas and they sang carols and chatted with us for a while before going to the next house.

When I arrived at the circle I met up with my Romanian teacher and some of her students. They were students that I had seen caroling earlier that day at our school. When it was time for Colegiul Tehnica to go the group stepped up and started their carols. One of the students brought a guitar and with it he led the group through a number of carols. At one point they called me up to help them sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas". I was embarrassed that I didn't know all of the lyrics, just the chorus. I would say that the group from Colegiul Tehnica did a fine job. The other high schools followed and by the end everybody in the circle was singing to close the event.

I continued my leisurely walk through the city passing by the temporary ice rink and the market which was closed for the evening. Finally I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple things before returning home. It ended up being a great night to see the lights, feel the Christmas spirit in town, and I got some shopping done as well. Sarbatori Fericite!

Peninsula 2010

A week ago today I arrived at Peninsula music festival in Targu Mures. I got the idea of attending from a group 27er a week earlier but I had a week long English camp to attend which ran into festival time. I figured that my chances of going were slim until I ran it by Justin and Jerod a couple nights into the camp. I figured that if they were down then I was down. Justin was in.

Friday, with the help of some great Romanians we made it to the festival before that day's music had started. Our wonderful host at the camp gave us a ride to Alba, took us around to a couple locations so we could find a tent, and even took us for some mici before dropping us off at the proper hitching spot. By then it wasn't a surprise that she would be so helpful to us. All week long she had been available to provide us with anything we needed weather it be materials/assistance for our English lessons or wine from the crama. We stayed at the hitching spot only 15 minutes before Paul stopped. Paul had a very little Daewoo and we had a lot of baggage. There we were, 3 of us and a lot of baggage and we still had to pick up one more. Now that's Romanian hospitality. Just and I were packed into the back seat next to my baggage while Mihai and Paul were in the front, the four of us bound for Targu Mures.

Paul seemed to be quite knowledgeable about the music that would be offered to us upon entering the festival. I, on the other had, was not at all knowledgeable about the music and that is what I liked so much about it. I was entering the gates to a musical world of discovery and I would leave with a list of newly found treasure. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take the wine in so we left it in the car. Paul and Mihai went to watch Parov Stellar while Just and I continued on to the campground to set up. After stopping by the 27er tents Just and I were lucky enough to make it back to Parov Stellar and catch a few great songs, the first band on my treasure list of music. Asher showed up and we oriented him with the campground before making our way back to the Fest for some food and The Rasmus. After about 5 songs it was time to ditch The Rasmus and move on to the Ciuc commercial that was Dan Helciug si spitalul de urgenta. The entire time Dan was holding his Ciuc hand high. That show led us to the nights climax performance that was Gorillaz Sound System. I dig the Gorillaz but they're animated. I had no clue what to expect. It turned out being some great Gorillaz music with some interesting animations projected onto a large screen hanging from the stage. It was cool, unexpected, and it earned a great response from the crowd.

The night continued. Gorillaz Sound System was followed by some hanging out, and raising our glasses to the night before making our way to Freedom Music Arena(FMA). The Arena is where the djs go and where the party lasts until 5 in morning every night. We walked in to Fedde le Grand of the Netherlands spinning. After dancing until 3 am the music stopped. I was shocked when I realized that this guy was up there playing with his equipment, non-stop, from well before I arrived. A new-found respect for djs. The next addition to my treasure-list of music walked onto the stage and began playing not 10min after Fedde exited. One benefit of dj music is minimal setup time required. The Romanian group Suie Parparude commanded the crowd and packed the FMA. I will not try to describe the music but I will recommend checking it out. Time for bed.

Saturday pre-music highlights include a walk around Tg. Mures, pulling a painful metal splinter from my foot, waking up on the grass next to a swimming pool shocked and a bit scared having no clue where I was (not drunk, just really tired), and a nice phone chat with my parents. Music highlights started with Phoenix, a band from the 70's that fled communism and returned to Romania decades later to rock out. I hung out with Paul and Mihai at that show. Next to go on was Europe. We all knew just one song by Europe and patiently waited for it to come, "The Final Countdown". Following Europe we wandered to see part of Tricky and then headed for the FMA when it began to rain. Returning to our tents after another late night dance session we found our stuff a bit wet from the hole in the top of the tent(no rain fly). I through my rain coat up over the hole and climbed into my bag to pass out.



Sunday was cloudy, rainy, and cold most of the day. While many people were packing up there tents and leaving there was quite the influx of rockers sporting Korn shirts, the big act to go on that evening. When the music finally came the group of volunteers made it to the main stage after eating to catch most of what I would call the best act at the fest. Zdob si Zdub of Moldova mix traditional Moldovan and Roma music into their hardcore ska style of rock, added to my list. The Korn show that night brought back some memories of middle-school and high-school. Finally before leaving the fest to catch our 3:30am personal back to Alba we caught most of the one man show named DubFX, the final addition to my list concluding my first Romanian festival experience.

Cool things to mention:
Fire dancers, collecting our beer cups to recycle and earn bracelits and a "t-shirt", awesome group of 27ers and 26ers mixed, huge pool, hanging with the group plus Romanian friends drinking down our wine by the lake, hamsii, nothing got stolen.