With revamped formats, outdoor programs or smaller editions, many festivals are back this summer in a schedule of cultural events with a diverse offering. We outline below some of the announced events for summer and the beginning of fall.

JAZZUNIQUE – Jazzin’ Europe

This international festival initiated by the local branch of EUNIC (European Union of National Institutes for Culture) in a partnership with Bucharest jazz club Green Hours runs a pilot edition between June 25th and June 27th. Under the headline "emerging excellency", the Green Hours garden will host several concerts of artists from EUNIC member countries in an event that promises "some of the most interesting projects to an audience eager for live events." The program is listed here.

American Independent Film Festival

The fifth edition of the American Independent Film Festival (AIFF), showcasing "American film, culture and lifestyle", takes place between June 23rd and June 27th at the Romanian Peasant Museum Cinema, outdoors at Food Hood, and online at Eventbook.ro. The program includes a selection of recent North American productions that impressed critics and audiences at festivals such as Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, and Toronto, alongside retrospectives, special screenings and events. The program is available here. All proceeds from the sale of AIFF tickets will be donated to the programs of Casa Bună, aimed at the vulnerable communities of Ferentari, Jilava and Arges County.

French Film Festival

An anniversary, 25th edition of the French Film Festival is scheduled to take place between July 1st and July 11th in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iaşi, Timişoara, Brașov, Brăila, Constanța, Sfântu Gheorghe, Sibiu and Suceava. The event, which screens some of the newest French films, will take place both indoor and outdoor, in keeping with current sanitary norms, but also online, for the first time in the festival's history. The festival will open with Albert Dupontel's Adieu les cons, the big winner of this year's César awards, while Emmanuel Courcol, the director of the 2020 Un Triomphe, will travel to Bucharest to meet the local public. The program and details about the sanitary measures in place are available here.

Weekend Sessions Botanica

Held at the Bucharest Botanical Garden until mid-September, this series of weekend events plan to deliver a mix of acoustic music sessions (classical, jazz, alternative, and indie) and poetry and reading sessions. Close to 5,000 sqm in the Botanical Garden will become a venue for arts and socializing, with two stages for concerts and four other areas for get-togethers, picnics, or sampling of gourmet products. The public is invited to discover a selection of local products, wines, or handmade decorations. Attendance is limited to 500 participants daily. More details here.

Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra are set to perform in Bucharest on July 1st, at Sala Palatului. Under the lead of musical director Wynton Marsalis, the orchestra performs a wide-ranging repertoire, including works and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus and many others. Another concert is scheduled for July 2nd at Sala Radio, also in Bucharest, and a third one in Sibiu's Grand Square on July 3. Further details here.

JazzTM - Timișoara Jazz Festival

The organizers of JazzTM are preparing a "smaller but safer edition, filled with memorable concerts" set to take place between July 2nd and July 4th. The lineup includes Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Ibrahim Maalouf - Quelques Melodies, Nubya Garcia, Ashley Henry, Bokanté, Theon Cross, Adi Stoenescu Group, Marta Popovici & OnThe Fly, and 7th Sense. More details on the program and the sanitary requirements for attendance here.

Eforie Colorat 

Running until September 12th, the project covers a program of film screenings, theater performances, contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, and workshops, with the broader aim of keeping the Summer Garden in Eforie Sud, a resort on the Black Sea coast, open to the public throughout the summer season. The program is available here.

Grădina Cu Filme

The venue in Lahovari Square is open until October, returning with its programing of Romanian and European films, and debates centered on cinema. In partnerships with various cultural institutes and embassies, it will also host the Dance Film Evening series, dedicated to women choreographers such as Martha Graham, Sasha Waltz, Noa Wertheim (Vertigo), and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas). Awarded international films will also be screened, and the venue will also host concerts, theater and stand-up comedy performances. This year, there will also be two open calls, one for independent theater in July, and another for bands that are just starting out (New Band in Town) in August. More details about the program here.

Gărâna Jazz Festival 

The 2021 edition of the jazz festival is scheduled to take place between July 7th and July 11th, with a lineup gathering names such as Avishai Cohen, Lars Danielsson, Nils Petter Molvær, Trygve Seim, Shri Sriram, Bugge Wesseltoft, David Helbock, Vincent Peirani & Émile Parisien, Francesco Bearzatti, Vasko Atanasovski, and Mohini Dey. More details about this year's edition here.

Transilvania International Film Festival 

The largest film festival in the country pushed this year's edition towards the end of July (July 23rd – August 1st) for an anniversary, 20th edition planned to allow for outdoor screenings. The festival announced so far an extensive Focus Spain program, including a partnership with the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the opening screening a Spanish movie: Cesc Gay's The People Upstairs. TIFF also announced several music events, including the cine-concert Malombra, with Julie Roué (France) and Simona Strungaru (Romania), the cine-concert Inferno by Edison Studio, celebrating the work of Dante Alighieri, and Fargo by French trio Fragments. TIFF will also present a performance by ballet superstar Sergei Polunin - Sergei Polunin Up, Close and Personal. He will also meet the public for a Q&A and deliver a masterclass. More info here.

Smida Jazz Festival

The jazz festival taking place in Smida, in Cluj county, returns this year on August 20th and August 21st. The lineup for the event's fifth edition hasn't been announced yet, but the blind passes for the festival or the festival & camping are already available to those who plan to spend a weekend enjoying a village break in the wilderness of the Apuseni Nature Park, with performances from local and international artists. More details here.

Sibiu International Theater Festival

The 2021 edition of event takes place between August 20th and August 29th, in a mixed format - online and in several locations in Sibiu. This year’s motto is “Building hope together.” Details about the program are to be made public in the coming period. Updates about the festival are posted here.

Sports representations in Romanian art from 1900 to today

Open at the Museum of Recent Art (MARe) until September 19th, this exhibition focuses on representations of sports in local art, tracing a history of more than 100 years. It covers aspects such as the Balchik School's preference for swimming and rowing, the Avant-garde's obsession for boxing and aviation, or the athletic vision cultivated by the official Communist art. The curating team put together a comprehensive portfolio of representations of various sports, from the most popular, such as football, athletics, gymnastics, tennis, handball, rugby, ski, chess, to the more specialized ones, requiring specific equipment or techniques. More details here. 

Matt Mullican: A chart between 5 worlds 

The MARe exhibition "Matt Mullican: A chart between 5 worlds / O diagramă între 5 lumi" is dedicated to one of the most influential American artists of the Pictures Generation, a contemporary artistic movement rooted in the American conceptualism of the 70s. Matt Mullican "stands out through the complexity of his theoretical-speculative system, a genuine philosophy put into images, which covers, under the sign of the five worlds that it identifies, not only semiology and cosmology but also the anthropological, biological, ethical and religious dimensions." He is the first international foreign artist present at MARe since the start of the pandemic crisis. The exhibition is open until September 20th. More info here.

Art Safari is scheduled to take place between September 16th and September 26th at Dacia Palace and Gabroveni Inn in Bucharest. Until then, the public can also see the exhibition Arta cucereşte Bucureştiul! (Art conquers Bucharest), rolled out by Art Safari in a partnership with Metrorex, the operator of the city's subway, or the exhibition dedicated to Romanian art opened in the boarding area of Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport, another project from Art Safari.

Some music festivals pushed their editions to end-summer – beginning of fall, while others came up with novel formats. Among them, Summer Well, held on the Stirbey Domain in Buftea, 15 km away from Bucharest, plans the 2021 edition between August 13th and August 15th. More details here.

Electric Castle, one of Romania's largest music festivals, will return with a special 10-day edition this year, held "in a formula adapted to the pandemic context." Scheduled for August 6-15, EC_Special will take place in 30 venues in Cluj-Napoca and Bontida and include more than 400 events. More about the event here.

Meanwhile, Cluj-Napoca's Untold will take place this year between September 9th and September 12th, while Neversea, which was due to take place in July, has been rescheduled, with the dates to be announced.

Also in Bucharest, SAGA Festival, scheduled to take place between September 10th and September 12th in Bucharest's Izvor Park, announced in its lineup names such as Tiësto, Alan Walker, Clean Bandit, Timmy Trumpet, Topic, Vini Vici, and W&W. More than 50 house, techno, and progressive artists are expected to perform at the festival, the organizers announced. More about the event here.

The 25th edition of the George Enescu International Festival, the largest classical music event in the country, is scheduled to take place between August 28th and September 26th. The program is available here.

(Photo: 2019 Sibiu International Theater Festival by Opreanu Roberto Sorin | Dreamstime.com)

*The events’ organizers detail the sanitary requirements for attending, alongside the ticket-pricing information.

simona@romania-insider.com