What we must not miss this year at Electric Castle 2024, but also behind the scenes of the festival, what is the “Angel shot” code, how the drones will be used, how the technical teams work and what special requests the artists have.
What not to miss at Electric Castle 2024. PHOTO: EC
Electric Castle starts next week and will take place between July 17-21 at Banffy Castle in Bonțida. The “truth” to discuss with the PR of the festival, Renate Rozenberg, about the concerts and experiences not to be missed.
The Truth: Recommend two or three shows that we should not miss every night?
Renate Rozenberg: I’m going to take you through all the genres, because that’s the most beautiful part of Electric Castle, a fantastic musical and cultural diversity.
Wednesday is usually our warm-up day, but I expect we’ll go straight into the ‘competition phase’ as this year we’re opening the campsite on Monday, so our most dedicated fans will be ready and the DJ Yoda parties they have always been top notch, so we look forward to seeing you at the Hangar stage. It’s the stage where you’ll definitely find me all Thursday night because there are 2 concerts I don’t want to miss – Genesis Owusu, an Australian born in Ghana who makes such good experimental music, is on my list of discoveries this year; then Cavalera, the 2 brothers who formed Sepultura and who come with the original material. We must definitely see Rema on the main stage, he is an artist who fully contributes to the trend that brought afrobeats to all the clubs in the world.
Friday, July 19, is already saved in my calendar iLe, a Puerto Rican with a Grammy award, still little known here, the concert ends just in time to reach Paolo Nutini, whom the fans have been waiting for about 5 years to come back with new material and look he finally does. Immediately after, also on the main stage are Bring Me The Horizon, the third time at the castle but they have a sensational new show, and naturally we run to see Shaquille O’Neil aka Dj Diesel at the Hangar at midnight.
Saturday is a bit of a panic, I have the feeling that no matter what I choose I may miss something good, but seeing Massive Attack live, at least once in your life, is a lesson in pure music, and even if you miss a little at the beginning, you have to get to DJ Shadow, put him on the “Endtroducing” playlist now to see why I wholeheartedly recommend him. And you can rest easy, don’t leave the Hangar stage because Marc Rebillet and Hernan Cattaneo b2b Sasha will follow immediately, the madness of the first is doubled by the perfect mixes of the two.
On Sunday, before dancing to Sean Paul, this year’s “guilty pleasure” at the Electric Castle, discover Royel Otis, the Aussies have every chance of being “the next big thing” if they keep it up. I also want to see Kenya Grace live, not because she was No. 1 in all the charts in the world for the last year, but because it is absolutely admirable what a girl of only 20 years does in terms of composition, production and interpretation.
What experiences should we not miss during the day?
Comedy Box moves to the castle, more precisely in The Stables where you can find them, and at 11:00 and in the evening, Vio, Costel, Mirică and the whole team with activations and stand-up performances. Very interesting guest list at EC Talks, many journalists, writers, activists, I expect discussions that will give us food for thought.
You can find relaxation at The Beach, in the dozens of sports that you can practice everywhere in the festival, bumping cars or hot air balloon rides. To visit the Castle Market, thanks to the dozens of designers we host we enrich both visually and in the wardrobe, don’t miss the collection we created with the help of donations of used clothes. I collected a ton of clothes that Velements recomposed into a new collection, all sales will go to World Vision Romania.
70% of the stage equipment to be brought in from outside
I recently saw a scandal related to the sound system at a big festival in the capital. Tell us a little behind the scenes of the festival in terms of all the logistics? How many people work on the technical side? How many volunteers will there be? How long does it take to set up? Where do you get the sound systems from? How do you make sure everything goes well with sound and lights? How many people handle the security side?
We work to the highest standard in the industry, hence the decision that 70% of the stage equipment is brought from outside, mainly Germany and the Netherlands, not being available on the domestic market, but we try to involve Romanian specialists as much as we can, because we want to grow this highly specialized area locally. In total, we have over 100 technicians who deal with sound, lights, video, etc. at the festival stages.
The challenge of a festival like Electric Castle, which relies heavily on live acts, is that you can have, consecutively, two bands with very different technical skills, without having the chance to move the equipment in the hour between concerts, and the differences can mean hundreds of lights set differently. So some days we even have 20 sets parked behind the main stage, all just for that day’s shows. Everything is calculated to the minute, you can’t afford delays.
The band’s sound engineer has the final control, he is the one who decides how the concert will sound, that’s why the rehearsals are very important. But no great artist enters a stage without sound proofs, be it Damon Albarn or Robert Del Naja, any big name in the industry you want to name.
Our advantage is that after 10 years, the international logistics teams that rotate on the tours of the big artists are already used to us and communication is easy, they know they can trust us to deliver exactly the quality they want. It is the merit of our colleagues and the fact that we are very rigorous in the details.
What is the Angel Shot code
EC has always paid attention to sustainability and participant safety. Do you have any news on this this year? Do you have other items you want to draw the attention of the participants?
On the sustainability side, we are happy that this is the first year in which we can offer free drinking water, both in the campsite and in the festival, which we hope will help us to reduce a lot the amount of pets we recycle.
In general, we have initiatives to reduce waste and pollution on all levels, from partnerships with the Cluj Food Bank, which will recover food that is about to expire, to smart showers (last year, we calculated that we managed to reduce consumption with 2 million liters of water), encouraging participants to leave their cars at home, or at least ensure that if they do, they come with all seats occupied.
In the campsite, greener than last year, because we continued the tree planting campaign here, the lighting of the alleys is done with solar lamps and this year we also have some structures that will also be powered by renewable energy. We go down to the details, this year we even managed to find a partner to help us recover the used oil, which will be turned into candles. It is an effort that we impose on ourselves because it is very important for us to create not only to offer a sustainable experience, but also to build long-term habits in this regard.
On the safety side, we are pleased to have a responsible and highly engaged community. Last year we were surprised by how many participants had saved the safety number – 0733 070 026 – in their phone book. Fortunately, we have not had any serious reports, but that is less important, we are interested in people reporting any situation that may endanger someone’s safety, and the specialized teams can make the right decisions.
Angel Shot remains in effect, it’s the code that any participant can announce at the festival bars when they feel insecure and don’t know what to do. And sexual safety is a priority. This year we have installed the G-Info Spot points, to benefit from resources and advice from specialists, with the help of a partner we also have the possibility of rapid testing for sexually transmitted diseases, they will transport the tests with drones to the laboratories in Cluj and the result will come as soon as possible.
Three recommendations for EC fans to have a smooth festival attendance?
Application – Planning – Empathy. Download your app, it will save you a lot of time and answer a lot of questions. Try a little planning before you leave home, 7 minutes of reading here https://electriccastle.ro/fyi and you won’t have any more “if only I knew…” revelations. Most things can be done from the phone, from loading the money on the bracelet, to buying train tickets (by the way, it’s the means of transport that we enthusiastically recommend, the most efficient financially and in terms of time). The history so far shows us that we are an event with a very high level of safety, but we need general support to remain so, our advice to the public is to have empathy and respect for everyone around, to care about the good of the person next to you is the first step towards a good atmosphere at an event.
What do the stars who come to EC this year want to eat, drink, do. If you had any special, original, interesting requests?
It’s harder to believe that artists who campaign for peace like Massive Attack or have programs to support disadvantaged youth like Shaquille O’Neill or metal veterans like Cavalera would ask for purple towels or lilac scent , not? They are relaxed, always happy when you recommend a wine or a brandy for a “local flavour”, but without confusing pretensions.
Instead, this year we have a record number of artists coming on nightliners (a specially adapted coach that is designed for passengers to sleep-no), a decision taken to reduce as much as possible the environmental impact that big tours have through carbon emissions generated. It’s not the ideal solution, but it’s the best at the moment. In fact, many artists are interested in our sustainability policy when we invite them to the festival and take our efforts seriously.
