The Ethno-Balcanic Festival in Moldova

Although it’s already the end of the summer, the number of festivals that take place in Moldova is flourishing! One can find every week-end an interesting event in which to take part! And before going to Gustar – one of the longest-expected festivals of the year, let’s make a small excursion into the past and discover the event from the previous week-end!

Cristina Țaranovici – student at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga came home for her summer holidays and finding out about the Ethno-Balcanic Festival VATRA, she knew that it might be interesting. At this point, we’ll let Cristina retell the story herself!

 ”A couple of weeks ago I got an invite on Facebook to attend the event. To be honest, at first I did not consider going there but I was easily convinced by the social media effect. I expected it to be fairly entertaining. My parents were there during the first day, and they described it to me as something I would enjoy. And so I did.

I went there with my brother and two friends, but all of us had the chance to meet our acquaintances there, and see some of the faces behind the profiles on Facebook.

Although the festival lasted for 2 days (August 16-17), unfortunately I do not have Hermione’s time turner to be in two places at once :). The first day I have been attending an event called DARE Social Fashion Show, where I was a volunteer. I got to the festival only for the last day of the event, in the afternoon.

It was the first time I have attended an open-air music festival in Moldova, so for my eye almost everything was new. I was particularly impressed by the decor and the arrangements: the piles of hay, drays, a huge apple, in short: all that is representative of our small and beautiful country. There was also a quite smart way of monitoring all the monetary transactions that occurred during the event, for people had to use special cards, offered at the entrance, to pay for anything they wished to buy on the territory of Vatra. Finally, I cannot mention something that particularly surprised me – everything had its “something special”.

The rain and the chilly weather, together with the sounds of lively music, shared with the warm souls around me, made the whole experience quite exhilarating. I might be biased, but it seemed to me that everyone there was happy and enjoying it.

As the name of the event might have revealed, we listened to ethno-balcanic music :). Most of the time I have spent in front of the main stage, listening to the performance of the artists. Everyone was looking forward to listen to the Romanian group “Subcarpați”. I have previously heard of their name, but did not listen to any of their songs, so I was looking forward to hear them perform. The sounds of “Subcarpați” combined hip hop with folk music. At first, it seemed a bit weird to me, since it is not something I listen to on daily basis; but during their performance I have heard some really nice songs, the lyrics having, at times, very subtle meanings.

After the concert on the main stage, we went to warm ourselves in front of a huge fire, and to delight our inner peace with more music.

And guess what? I am looking forward to going to Gustar! But wait, it starts tomorrow!”

P.S. Trip Moldova will keep you updated with all the great events that are taking place!