WHAT IS ROCKSTADT EXTREME FEST? (ROMANIA)
The festival as my personal experience...
Au-Thor precious demon Nayia K.Rose(Nayia Kanavou).
I had written an article with the same title some years ago, when I had the pleasure to be one of the festival's photographers. But that was not the first time I attended Rockstadt Extreme Fest. My story with the Transylvanian festival starts one year earlier and I always wanted to make a storytime video about it sometime, as it's juicy as a Hell...and I probably will... As it involves my tent getting broken, as I didn't know how to set one on a rainy mountain, well now I know! Thanks to Rockstadt! Haha! The next year my tent was unbreakable like a castle!
Also as a result of the broken tent, there is me ending up to a scammer hotel where I got charged twice, did I mention that a part of the ceiling fell from some water leak and almost landed on my head? Me yelling screaming and ending up being chased with a knife by another Romanian who was sleeping in the room next to mine. I was loud and he couldn't sleep. He also couldn't walk well, so the chances of him stabbing me were close to -0,1%. Ok, this did not go very well until now, I have not given you a very nice picture...well until now, but this all have nothing to do with the festival, those were just side quests of mine.
So once upon a time as a curious little demon, lover of Romania, for some reason I love this country, especially Transylvania, my little, half blind eyes, saw an announcement of a metal festival in the mountains of Transylvania. And I instantly fell in love! I had to go! And I was right! This is the 4th year in a row that I will be visiting this wonderful event. This year it's going to be a bit different, as it grows and more people get to know about it and more and more metalheads climb the mountain to find the shiny stages. This year Rockstadt changes location, it's still on the mountains of Transylvania, but this year it takes place at Ghimbav. All the previous years Rockstadt used to take place under the Rasnov castle and we had the pleasure to meet foxes in our way to the festival and bears... The background of the festival was the mountain with the fortress, an actual fortress... And huge trees around... This festival is actually a fever dream... I had a drunk Romanian telling me that he wanted me to walk him back home, because he was afraid of a five meter tall bear he just saw... Well maybe the bear was not 5 meters tall, but there were bears in the forest and we were warned not to go very deep in the woods... Well that's a funny memory of mine. I did walk him till we reached the village and he stopped being scared and then our ways got separated. I also had the pleasure to meet a wolf on my way back to my hotel the first year, which my blind eyes mistook for a dog and I almost pet that...dog. Luckily last minute I didn't - told ya I have many stories.
But what about the festival? The festival started as a very small event... "Rockstadt Extreme Fest was established in 2013 in the heart of Transylvania, starting as a small gathering that has since grown into Eastern Europe’s premier rock and metal music festival."as mentioned on Rockstadt Extreme Fest official site.
And year after year it grows bigger. It's based on community, that's the spirit. As a person who has been fainting everywhere due to my sensitivities, I was picked up by an attendant of the festival. A random guy stopped, woke me up, bought me a bottle of water and gave it to me and disappeared in the crowd. Never seen him again. This also the first year of my visit. Me making friends in the long run of my visits also. Seeing more and more familiar faces as an introvert is a great thing for me.
Rockstadt started as something small and now it's quite big, but every year I visit it it's the same feeling. The same familiar feeling of the wonderful smells of freshly cooked Romania food, delicious by the way, also vegetarian options, important for people like me. It's the cheap beer, "the beer is cheaper than water" ... Yeah that... Also having met several volunteers I've learnt that they've been treated wonderfully.
So yes Rockstadt is the 100 bands festival, the line up is huge, it's a great opportunity to watch all those different acts, all in one place sourounded by nature and castles and vampires, bigger and smaller names, from famous to local bands... But for me is more than that.
For me is the essence. Is that feeling of safety I feel in the festival. That feeling of community, because we are all a big family that protects each other and we gather in the forest every year to enjoy our devil music. People respect each other and nature and we are all together, no matter how the outsiders see us and treat us. So, I don't care if I was scammed, or chased, we are in the Balcans, those things have happened to me in my home country as well, in Greece. I am mixed, I am half Swedish and half Greek, I am loud, I am annoying and I don't know when to stop when something is not fair. If I see inconvenience I speak up and I've been multiple times to shut up even if I'm right, for my safety, but I don't listen and I'm still alive, so whatever... Maybe I'm a vampire,too.
So this year, let's welcome the new location and celebrate it and step in with the right foot, as we say in Greece, for good luck. I'm sure it's going to be beautiful as always and I can't wait for it! I'm so excited! And so should be you!
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