Two Great Music Festivals You Probably Never Heard About
Fifty years ago, a bunch of musicians from all over America gathered near Bethel, New York for “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music”, an event that went down in history simply as “Woodstock”. It was, by no means, the first music festival in history but it completely changed the way people look at similar events. Also, it left a serious mark on the music industry of our modern times – today, a never-before-seen number of events organized all over the world are fighting to book the most popular musical acts today, and this often leads to all-out bidding wars (more on this at another time). We have all heard of massive events like Coachella, Burning Man, Glastonbury, or perhaps the ill-fated Fyre, the luxury festival turned massive fraud backed by American rapper Ja Rule. Now let’s take a look at some major events that you have probably never heard about – but this doesn’t make them any less important.
O.Z.O.R.A (Dádpuszta, Hungary, July 24 – August 4)
The Ozora Festival, stylized as O.Z.O.R.A., is described by its organizers as a “psychedelic tribal gathering”. This annual psychedelic trance and arts festival is held each year since 2004 on an estate in Ozora, a commune at around 90 miles southwest from the Hungarian capital Budapest. While it may not be a massive event when compared to other popular festivals – each year it attracts about 60,000 attendees – it is massive in its own genre: it is one of the biggest festivals built around psytrance in the world.
Aside from several stages “inhabited” by some of the biggest names in the genre (this year, its Main Stage will be home to everyone between Ace Ventura and Yudhishthira) it also has many other amenities, from art camps, art therapy, circus, and alternative medicine to a bazaar where the attendees can taste a variety of foods and buy a variety of artisanal items, many of which are made on the spot.
Electric Castle (Banffy Castle, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, July 17-21)
Electric Castle started small and grew exponentially over the years. As its name suggests, it was originally an electronic music festival that later expanded to accommodate more genres, from alternative to rock, indie, and reggae, among others. From its humble origins in 2013, when it attracted slightly more than 30,000 visitors, Electric Castle has grown exponentially, with last year’s event breaking the 200,000 visitors’ barrier. Since its inception, the event was shortlisted four times for the European Festival Awards’ “Best Medium Sized Festival” category. Part of the money earned by the festival is used to restore the Banffy Castle, the baroque historical building next to the festival grounds that inspired its name, and for the development of Bontida, the settlement nearby.
This year, the festival has headliners like Florence + The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Bring Me The Horizon, and many others.
