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Festival Experience: Untold Festival

Festival Experience: Untold Festival

Hello! Hello!

This seems to be an endless and rainy summer, but today’s article is all about my experience at Untold Festival. I thought I would try some new experiences this summer and go to music festivals. 

This years’ Untold festival was the fourth edition and I am proud to say that I have participated at every single edition so far compared to Electric Castle, which was a first time experience. Each one of them was special in their own way and left me with some great memories. The first music festival I ever went to was Untold so of course that nothing compared to that first edition, not even the next 2 which followed. There is just something captivating about Untold. I guess it could be the magical experience when you are in front of the main stage and you just let yourself get carried away by the music, while dancing. Honestly, after having seen all the DJs  mixing for so quite some time, I already knew what to expect. Unlike Electric Castle, where I had to to wait in line to get to the festival, here it went faster, despite the fact that there were also some issues, but nothing that was not solved immediately. 

Untold festival has become one of the best known festivals in Romania, and Europe and has gathered thousands of people from different parts of the world. Must say that no one has ever imagined the success it reached. The resemblance to Tomorrowland does exists, and it took inspiration from it, but to be able to create such a festival in the area of the Central Park and Cluj Arena is impressive. Also, the number of participants at this year’s edition was somewhere about 355.000, roughly estimated. 

Day 1

Even though it rained a little bit, I couldn’t wait for The Chainsmokers, who were at the main stage, and they really met all my expectations. What I did not expect though was Andrew Taggart singing live “Closer”, because we all know the failure from 2016 from the VMA, but I guessed he practiced since then, because now it was just so good. After that, I stayed for Diplo, because I was so curious to see his performance. Diplo was also one of the reasons I wanted to go to Untold, because of all his songs. I must say that I liked his mix and I would like to see him again coming to Untold Festival. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay longer to see Afrojack, but I heard that many participants liked him. He had a pretty nice performace when I saw him last year as well. I must admit the festival opened on a very strong note, with such big names, along with Parov Stelar, which I also enjoyed. Also, Nina Kravitz was a nice presence. As I was saying the first day line-up brought together some new artists who have never been to Untold before. 

Day 2

For the second day, I must admit I was slightly half human. I even arrived later to the festival, but I was determined to see Kygo in action. I met with my lovely friends, and then we caught Jason Derulo performing the last 3 songs. Jason can sing live and can overall perform. I mean he has the stage presence and the choreography, and he can put on a show. 

On the other hand, Kygo was the best surprise of the festival. He went above all my expectations. He even played the piano and by the end of his performance, he brought on stage Justin Jesso and he sang Firestone and Stargazing. It was just a beautiful moment and magical! I would definitely, definitely love to see him perform again. 

DJ Tiesto came immediately after and he just made everyone dance, but it was just like the other editions, nothing out of the ordinary, but we had fun! In what concerns Don Diablo and the rest of the show, we exchanged it for visiting other stages and the park area. 

Day 3

Question of the day: Can you still party? After falling asleep at 7 o’clock in the morning, well yeah… But this day was dedicated to photos and activities in the park area. I missed The Prodigy, but the opinions on their performance are so differentiated: some liked it and some not. But… Alesso, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Steve Aoki, made sure I stayed until 6 AM dancing and freezing. Who knew it could get so cold during a summer night?

During Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike I thought I would not make it out alive, mostly because at that moment at the main stage were 80.000 people and I was near the front of the stage and I was just pushed from one side to another, I was walked over, people were throwing water just randomly. And because this was not enough, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike thought it was a nice idea to have a cardio exercise at 3 AM, because why not and we had to jump from the left to the right. Their question: Are you ready to jump?

Me: NO!  Someone please help. 

But it ended up being very fun, but not as much fun as last year… I could feel that some of the artists did not perform to the level everyone was expecting them to. Of course, I took into account the ones who were at the festival before.

Day 4

Well, this is what I came for: Black Eyed Peas! I was kinda sad that they did not bring Fergie as a surprised appearance, but they have a new band member: Jessica. What I want to say is that I grew up listening to Black Eyed Peas’ songs and I was let down… They sang some of their songs, while they did not perform other of their biggest songs. They had one hour and 15 minutes to perform, and I enjoyed their performance and the interaction with the public, but at some point it got to too much talking rather than performing. In this case the perceptions may differ. I am just telling you my experience, so no hate… 

After that, we went to Galaxy Stage, then to Alchemy stage, and then returned to Fedde le Grande and Armin van Buuren. Even from the first year of the festival, Armin has become a symbol of Untold and each year he surprises us with the length of his set, He mixed for about 7 hours this year, but I might add the fact that I couldn’t stay more than one hour to listen to it. I don’t know what happened this year, but it was very difficult to feel the vibe. It was weird, but at 9 AM there were still people dancing, so…

From my perception, the overall festival was weaker than last year’s edition. Some of the artists which were also invited last year, had not performed to the expectations, but there were also great moments which surprised all of us. Just like in the Electric Castles’ case, it is difficult to organize such a festival, but I say that this experience is 100% worth it, at least once!

Last but not least, I would like to say a huge thank you to my awesome friends for making this an unforgettable experience, just like they did every single year! You rock! All love! 

Also, I would like to thank Chris, for helping me with these beautiful photos and with the best photography tips! 🙂  Make sure to check out his work! 

The summer is not over yet and I still have one more festival to attend to, so make sure to follow me on Instagram to see what I am up to! If you have been to any music festival, please let me know your experience. 🙂

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