Festivals, Place-making and Local Economic Development: The Untold Festival in Cluj

ABSTRACT

Music festivals are one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, especially super-sized festivals, hosts of the biggest performers in international music charts, with thousands of fans, where the sound combined with spectacular visual effects and impressive settings create a unique sensorial experience. Untold Festival, the most promising event of this type in Eastern Europe, now at the 4^th edition, was started in Cluj-Napoca, in 2015, as a project partially supported by the local authorities and it has been then developed through private financing and sponsorship. Untold promotes Transylvania’s mythological heritage, Romanian culture and traditions driving tourism and economic development in the region. The present paper aims to show the contribution of the festival in the placemaking of Cluj-Napoca and its surrounding area. The festival has an important

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank to the staff and management of Untold Marketing & Communication Department for their assistance with the collection of data for this article. My special thanks are extended to Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy - IRES for sharing with me the results of their questionnaire survey on Perceptions about Untold Festival in 2017.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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15. [Luis-Manuel Garcia, A pre-history of the electronic music festival, 14 July 2014]

<https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2104> (accesed date: 24.05.2018).

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18. Ibid., p. 193.

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20. Ibid, p. 168.

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22. D. Barrera-Fernández and M. Hernández-Escampa, ‘Events and placemaking: the case of the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico’, International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 2017, 8(1), pp. 24–38.

23. Popescu and Corboş, op. cit., p. 25.

24. Kong, op. cit., p. 196.

25. Laing, op. cit., p. 168.

26. Ibid., p. 167.

27. [James Kilpin, TOP 10: EDM and Dance Festivals in Europe, 29 December 2017, First Published 30 September 2016] <https://www.festicket.com/magazine/discover/top-10-edm-and-dance-festivals-europe> (accesed date: 10.05.2018).

28. Interview with Adrian Chereji, Head of Marketing & Communication for Untold Festival, interview date: 25.01.2018.

29. Anca Tudoricu, ‘Event Tourism in Romania—A Tourist Profile’, Human Geographies—Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography [Online], 2(1), 2008, p. 98, <http://humangeographies.org.ro/articles/21/2_1_8_tudoricu.pdf> (accesed date: 20.06.2018) and Popescu and Corboş, op. cit., p. 27.

30. Ibid.

31. Ibid.

32. [Ioana Chifor and Ștefana Giurgiu, Unde te cazezi tu și gașca ta când vii la Untold? Ia-ți acum cazare pentru cel mai bun festival din Europa, Untold!, press release of the Untold Press Office, 05.05. 2016] <www.untold.com> (access date: 25.04. 2017).

33. [Ioana Chifor, Ia-ți acum unul din cele 3000 de locuri de cazare în campingul Untold 2017! Campingul Untold 2017 în Baza Sportivă Transilvania, press release of the Untold Press Office, 08.06. 2017] <www.untold.com> (access date: 25.10. 2017).

34. Interview with Adrian Chereji, Head of Marketing & Communication for Untold Festival, interview date: 25.01.2018.

35. N. Ciangă and Șt. Dezsi, Amenajare turistică [Land-use planning for tourism], Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2007, pp. 40–41.

36. [Alina Ciobanu, Cea de-a treia editie a festivalului Untold are un buget de 10 miloane de euro: Am crescut cu 50% bugetul artistilor, 22 iunie, 2017] <https://life.hotnews.ro/stiri-muzica-21833981-cea-treia-editie-festivalului-untold-are-buget-10-miloane-euro-crescut-50-suta-bugetul-artistilor.htm> (access date: 17.05.2018).

37. [Cristina Beligăr, Efectul UNTOLD: Hotelurile din Cluj, aproape complet rezervate cu șase luni înaintea festivalului, 28 ianuarie 2016] <http://transilvaniareporter.ro/cultura/efectul-untold-hotelurile-din-cluj-aproape-complet-rezervate-cu-sase-luni-inaintea-festivalului> (access date: 17.06.2018).

38. [Luis-Manuel Garcia, A pre-history of the electronic music festival, 14 July 2014] <https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2104> (accesed date: 24.05.2018).

39. Institutul Român pentru Evaluare și Strategie—IRES, Percepții despre festivalul Untold [Perceptions on Untold Festival], research report, 7–10 of August, 2017.

40. O. Moisescu, Analiza experienței festivaliere și a impactului local al festivalurilor Untold și Electric Castle în anul 2017, 2018, 10.13140/RG.2.2.25168.20480.

41. [M. Prodan, Un profesor la UBB face analiza Untold și Electric Castle. Câți bani cheltuie festivalierii și care e impactul în comunitate, 23. 07.2018] <https://actualdecluj.ro/un-profesor-la-ubb-face-analiza-untold-si-electric-castle-cati-bani-cheltuie-festivalierii-si-care-e-impactul-in-comunitate > (accesed date: 25.07.2018).

42. Interpretation after Cudny, op. cit., p. 109, Table 1—The main functions and dysfunctions of festival tourism in the context of tourist space elements.

43. [Știrile PRO TV, Untold, evenimentul pentru care vin cei mai mulți străini în România. DJ-ii au ajuns să își dorească să fie invitați] <https://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actualitate/istoria-untold-pentru-care-vin-cei-mai-mulc-i-straini-in-romania-dj-ii-au-ajuns-sa-ic-i-doreasca-sa-fie-invitac-i.html> (accesed date: 20.06.2018).

44. Interview with Adrian Chereji, Head of Marketing & Communication for Untold Festival, interview date: 25.01.2018.