The 2022 festival season is coming to an end. The industry is already taking stock: sold-out traditional events with sharply increased production costs. In addition, there are new names that stand for a dynamic atmosphere of optimism in the live scene. In many places the cards are being reshuffled, whereby the difficult (financial) circumstances that medium-sized organizers in particular are currently struggling with are always mentioned. Nevertheless, there is (for the time being) more light than shadow in the post-pandemic festival summer of 2022.
There is a little time to take a deep breath, to look beyond the live horizon: to Romania. In a country that only joined the EU in 2007 and that some associate more with Count Dracula than with differentiated festival addresses.
The region between Transylvania in the north and the Black Sea coast has been on a course of renewal for about ten years. The protagonists learned from the mistakes of the 2000s, when expensive international acts caused many music companies to go bankrupt.
The organizer scene is relatively young. Compared to the structures that have grown in England, the Netherlands or Germany since the 1970s, today’s doers come from the mid-thirties to mid-forties generation, who saw the era under long-term despot Nicolae Ceaușescu as only children or already in witnessed the chaotic years of upheaval. As everywhere in post-socialism, many women are at the forefront. The players mostly work in indie structures with six to eight permanent employees. Such as Overground Music from Bucharest; who also develop and manage talent. The company’s own “Villa” in Bucharest with rehearsal rooms and studios acts like a hub for Romanian indie and pop acts.
Festivals like Untold, Electric Castle or Neversea do without foreign stars and rely more on regional bands, rappers or DJs. This strengthens the music scene and reduces the risk of not being able to bring in the fat festival fees and production costs for US or UK headliners.
Last Sunday the “Living Rock” came to an end. An eight-year-old indie structure that rises to a relaxed scale of 3,000 guests near the port city of Constanta on sprawling grounds above Tuzla Plaja. The border with Ukraine is right next door. There was no sign of a particularly worried mood. Rather a defiant one: “Fuck War, Let’s Dance”. In any case, there are big celebrations here, in the Black Sea summer holiday zone.
The landscape rises over wide terraces into the flat hinterland. The “Living Rock” festival ground is located on a large area of clay and grass. A central stage, an open chill-out time for Cafe Del Mar-esque electro-fusion or chamber pop at the “Brunch Sessions”.
While the dominant sound in the bars and clubs in Romania is R’n’B, trap or electro in the broadest sense, “Living Rock” has a clear focus on (indie) rock. The complex, multi-layered art rock of bands like Byron from Bucharest or the lowered guitar breakers of the old masters from Vita de Vie meet Balthazar from Ghent in Belgium or the playful glam stylers from Piqued Jacks from Italy. The “Internationals” fit seamlessly into the Romanian canon. One is among friends here; All around an almost Mediterranean atmosphere.
It’s no wonder that many visitors have just splashed around in the Black Sea, which is barely 70 meters away. There are no strict safety regulations, everything chilled. The prices for beer and food are around two-thirds of German standards. Quality of stay is very important.
And so it’s up to the four conservatory women of the Amadeus Romanian Girls to serve up a completely different sound at the matinee under the Sunday chill-out tent.
Classic pop with Falco’s “Amadeus”, original compositions and Mozart-Beethoven-esque a la Vanessa May, performed with drummer, keyboard and Alyson Moyet-esque vocalist. A successful ensemble concept that has been touring worldwide for years. Andreea Runceanu (violin), Bianca Gavrilescu (violin), Patricia Cimpoiasu (electro-cello), and Laura Lazarescu (synth and piano) are already where their male colleagues want to be:
A piece of the pop cake in western countries. The foundations for this are being laid in Romania’s increasingly professional festival scene.
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