Electric Castle, Romania’s innovative music festival, celebrated its tenth anniversary with the 2024 edition, which was held from July 17 to 21 at Banffy Castle near Cluj-Napoca. In its ten years of existence, the festival has continued to push the boundaries of what a music festival can be. Business Review spoke with Tudor Costinas, Head of Communications at Electric Castle, about the festival’s evolution, memorable moments, and ongoing commitment to sustainability and network engagement.
By Mihai Cristéa
As Electric Castle celebrates its tenth anniversary, what do you think of the festival’s adventure and evolution since its inception?What were the most memorable moments and challenges?
The adventure from our beginnings to becoming one of the most enjoyed music festivals in Romania has been nothing short of extraordinary. When we started, the music festival market in Romania was non-existent at best. This allowed us to believe whatever we wanted, but we had to limit our imagination due to a lack of knowledge of the market to organize a large event and an audience that did not know what a real music festival should be like. Find out more about Lenovo, it is one of the sponsors of the 10th edition of the Electric Castle music festival. Discover more
Could we have made less difficult decisions, such as starting in an urban area rather than a semi-anonymous village? Or perhaps stick to a formula and reflect it locally? Probably, but laughter would have been only part of what it was.
From the beginning, our vision is to create an event that transcends music, combining art, generation and an unforgettable experience at the magnificent Banffy Castle. Over the years, we have evolved significantly, continually breaking barriers to offer our attendees something new and exciting for both one and both years. We have faced challenges, from weather-related issues to logistical impediments, but both impediments have taught us valuable lessons, helping us grow and improve.
One of the most productive tactics for measuring our good fortune is to communicate it with the artists who have led our stages over the last decade. Last week we spoke to Robin, frontman of Robin and The Backstabbers, about his first performance at the Castle in 2013. He remembers playing in the lightning and rain, with a crowd in front of the stage, thinking: “It’s different; maybe it’s just be something big. And it came true.
The “It’s not goodbye, it’ll dress you later” crusade is a vital step towards sustainable fashion. Can you tell us more about the genesis of this initiative and the effect you hope it will have on the festival network? And the general public?
Recycling drives are a culture at Electric Castle. Ten years ago, we started our first project, turning promotional outdoor fabrics (such as nets and banners) into a collection of bags. It was a new concept at the time, but the positive reaction from the public convinced us that other people were in a position to adopt a new way of consuming fashion. As a result, these types of projects have a coherent component of our strategy to promote a culture of sustainability.
The 2024 “It’s not good until the end, it’s used later” campaign was born from our awareness of the environmental impact of the fashion industry, that is, the fast fashion culture that is prevalent among festival-goers. Every year, the coolest outfits to wear to summer festivals create a buzz. We aim to fight this by encouraging our network to choose more sustainable clothing.
The feedback has been fantastic. With the help of our partners at the Promenada shopping center, we collected more than a ton of used clothing, which designer Velements spent more than a month transforming into a new clothing line with the logo. Items that may not have been incorporated were used to produce poufs that will provide this year’s participants with a comfortable place to take a break.
The new collection has already been presented at Romanian Design Week and can be purchased during the festival in our anti-mall, an area committed to young Romanian designers who show their creations. All profits from the collection will be donated to help the educational systems of the NGO Salvati Copiii for vulnerable children.
The most productive news is that other people are excited to embark on these types of initiatives. Although we only collected clothes in Bucharest, we received many messages from all over the country, from other people who wanted to contribute. We hope that this initiative will encourage more corporations to get involved, offering other people the opportunity to adopt more environmentally friendly practices in their lives. “
Electric Castle has become a beloved occasion because of its network focus. How to interact and integrate feedback from festival-goers and the local network to frequently improve the festival?
In a world where so many other people try to be “the biggest”, “the best” and “the most. . . At Electric Castle, we just need to laugh with our audience and grow together in the music culture and festival experience. This original attitude fostered a close relationship with the EC network, which kept us together for over a decade. Community involvement is at the heart of Electric Castle’s success. We actively seek feedback from festival attendees and the local network. through surveys, social media interactions, and face-to-face conversations during the event. This feedback is invaluable because it helps us understand what is working well and what we can improve. We appreciate complaints as much as praise and other people know that we are there. to pay attention to them. These fair and direct comments are all a logo can need.
Our main promise is to never stop challenging our audience. Sometimes this means making possible “special” options in our programming (“How can this or that artist perform at Electric Castle?!”), replacing the festival logo (“Why the EC red logo? We enjoy it yellow!”) or launch ambitious campaigns like Bontida Fever with crazy and demanding situations like getting a permanent tattoo. As long as we are all excited to see new things and embrace the new, Electric Castle will remain hilarious and fresh.
Creating a festival of this scale comes with unique logistical challenges. How does your team prepare and manage for those unforeseen events to provide an elegant experience for attendees and performers?
Every year we start from scratch and build a small town on 40 hectares. The logistics of the festival are impressive, as most of the event is built on land with no permanent utilities such as water and electricity. The real challenge is to create something that meets the criteria and make sure that, within two weeks of the festival, everything is back to its original state, or even better.
Organizing a festival of this magnitude requires complex preparation of plans and the ability to adapt to unforeseen events. Our team starts arrangements months in advance and works extensively with local authorities, suppliers and logistics experts to ensure each and every detail is covered. We have contingency plans for other scenarios, from weather disruptions to technical problems.
We also aim to create a space that the local network can enjoy all year round. For example, we made the decision to plant 10,000 trees on the dry land where we set up our camp, transforming it into a much-needed park. From this edition we will also supply loose water at the festival site, a service that will be maintained throughout the year.
Looking ahead, what are your goals for Electric Castle over the next decade?Are there any new instructions or inventions you plan to explore to continue making the festival a sustainable experience?
Looking ahead, our main goal for Electric Castle is to continue its progression as an exclusive and sustainable experience. The festival will undoubtedly grow in terms of attendance. Ten years ago, our first edition welcomed 30,000 participants, and in 2023, we will gather 232,000. Fortunately, our site can accommodate this expansion without compromising audience convenience or our commitment to publishing innovation. However, we aim to achieve this expansion in a sustainable manner.
To this end, we plan to expand our sustainability projects to make the festival as environmentally friendly as possible. This includes reducing our carbon footprint, expanding recycling efforts, and sustainable practices for our participants and partners.
We are also exploring opportunities to expand our logo to new occasions and projects. We tested this concept with more specialized projects, such as the EC Creative Camp, which offers a space for Romanian artists to innovate and create, and with the release of documentary films such as “No Festival”, which were shown in cinemas and on streaming. platforms. “Lost and Found” is a new area that we opened in Bucharest, inviting all creatives to register every day of the year in a city that gives us the largest audience component of the festival. However, we are careful not to mirror the Electric Castle festival elsewhere. As we embark on the next decade, we remain committed to our core values of creativity, network and sustainability. We look forward to many more years of music, art and memories.
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