Radio România Internațional

Tag: lake

  • Alternative music festivals in Romania, back on track

    Alternative music festivals in Romania, back on track

    The lay public’s quest
    for cultural events as social experiences has seen an upsurge after the
    COVID-19 pandemic, People are on the lookout for performances, festivals, fairs
    and other events. The weather outside is really fine, so the cultural events
    have been relocated to outdoor premises, in parks, gardens, public squares or
    other areas with a special destination. A telling example of that is provided by
    the Rocanotherworld Festival, held on the outskirts of Iasi, a city located in
    north-eastern Romania, nearby the Aroneanu Lake, which is an artificial dam
    lake in the Moldavian Plains. Alternative and electronic music, artistic manifestations,
    conferences, food and merry-making, all that is set to populate the green area
    on the lake shores in late June. Patricia Butucel is the director of the Rocanotherworld festival. She has
    given details on what Rocanotherworld actually is and on the surprises the
    organizers have in store for the public

    Rocanotherworld will reach its
    7th edition this year and we’re happy we can return to normal, to an
    event set to unfold just as it was before the pandemic, with no restrictions. The
    2022 edition has got a novelty ready for everyone: we shall have the festival
    on the shores of the Aroneanu Lake, it is a new and beautiful space which
    perfectly suits this year’s trend. The artists performing at the festival are
    local bands, but also national and foreign ones. We will also have a DJ on the
    electronic music stage and we’re happy we’re going to get the festival started
    with a really fine band, fresh, which is set to grow, and we’re dead positive
    it will earn its place among the top alternative rock bands, with Paul Tihan.
    We shall also have those of the Suie Paparude band, we will have the launch of
    an album, we shall have two album launches, actually, Man to the Moon, and Madalina
    Paval with an orchestra. Republic of Modova’s Zdob and Zdub will also come
    over, then we will also have Golan, Alternosfera, Kumm, the lineup we’re going
    to have will be so diversified, and as an absolute first we shall have a great
    international band, the Nouvelle Vague. And we’re delighted because of the
    start we’ve taken and because of this trend, an international one, that
    including the electronic music stage as well. There will be DJs from our
    country but also foreign DJs, from Portugal, we will also a woman DJ from
    Ukraine who has relocated to Romania. We will also have an acoustic music
    stage, we will have silent disco. We tried, like, to create a mix so that our
    public can have as diversified an experience as possible. Zdob and Zdub, we saw
    that they were, like, were we to make a chart, they were the favorites for our
    public, as for Alternosfera or the French artists, Nouvelle Vague, likewise,
    they are among the favorites for the Rocanotherworld public.


    Here is the festival director, Patricia Butucel,
    once again, this time speaking about the fans of the event, which will soon see
    its seventh edition, about the public and the community that has revolved
    around the festival.


    The Rocanotherworld public, we could say it mainly is a
    faithful public since there are a great many people who have been with us since
    the inaugural edition, in 2016. They proved they support us and that, actually,
    together we are a community. And that also happened in the pandemic years,
    since Rocanotherworld was held in 2020, but also in 2021, and we’re clearly
    speaking about the pandemic editions, with all sorts of restrictions and, no
    matter what the circumstances and the context was, people stood by us. Before,
    we used to speak about, I don’t know, some sort of reluctance when we meant
    festivals, now we can see people are much mop reopen, much more eager to attend
    events and especially outdoor events.


    But how did people prepare for Rocanotherworld? What are the challenges
    for the organizers and where is the festival’s 2022 edition heading to?


    There’s this relaxation and charging side of the event
    we want to offer to our public, but we also sought to organize an event which
    for them is safe, especially after what
    has happened in Bucharest as of late. This week I even went to see the local
    authorities with whom we met quite often, we had meetings with the Anti-Drug
    Squad, because we want the whole experience to remain a safe one, for our
    participants, but also for the volunteers, for the artists involved, and for
    all the people who will come to the festival.


    Starting last year, Rocanotherworld has embarked on the path of
    sustainability, and I’m saying that because we want to meet the Zero Waste set
    target. But that is something utopian, for the time being, however, it’s the
    least we can do, through organizing and positioning, to help people as well, to
    encourage them to have a sustainable behavior and a nature-friendly one as
    much as possible. So, as I was saying, as of last year, we have ticked our
    short, medium and long-terms goals. We began by the separate collection of
    waste. We used sustainable materials for the festival’s production and
    signaling system. We replaced the classical promotion, made with OH-type
    banners and advertising boards, with the digital OH side. We encouraged and
    facilitated the use of alternative means of transport, such as electric push
    scooters, bicycles or public transport. In effect, the entire planning of the
    festival, the entire organization, was based on prevention, reusing, redesign
    and recycling principles. What we’re going to do, actually, for 2022, we shall
    prepare 4 days of unique experiences for the Rocanotherworld public, there will be something
    people can live during the event. We will
    have daytime activities, there will be relaxation areas, games, we will have an
    escalation board, we will have silent disco, debates, acoustic stage, live
    music, electronic music stages, so we will try to create a universe where
    people can come and relax completely.


    (EN)

  • Projects of the Ceausescu Era and their remnants in today’s Bucharest

    Projects of the Ceausescu Era and their remnants in today’s Bucharest


    The Crangasi district in the north-western area of Bucharest in the north-western area of Bucharest boasts Romanian capital city’s biggest artificial lake. The water surface area has a rather recent history. It appeared 36 years ago, in 1986. It is known as the Mill Lake. The lake is also known as the Ciurel or the Dambovita Lake. The area proper of the water surface is impressive; it used to be part of the large-scale watercourse arrangement project targeting the Dambovita river which cuts through Romania’s capital city, from north-west to the east.



    We’re about to explore the history of the Mill Lake, and our guide is historian Cezar Buiumaci with the Bucharest Municipal Museum. Here he is, taking us back to the beginnings of Bucharest’s newest and biggest lake.



    Cezar Buiumaci:



    The Mill Lake is part of Dambovita river’s watercourse arrangement project and, as an idea, it first occurred once with the inception of Bucharest’s town planning works in the 20th century’s early 1980s. It was part of Nicolae Ceausescu’s great makeover project for the city. The Bucharest leader was only taking up on an idea that had occurred previously, that of the construction of a waterway linking Bucharest to the Danube and involving the watercourse of Dambovita and Arges rivers. The condition of the Dambovita river flow was analyzed, only to reveal that the old river bed was not fit for inland waterway transportation. For the water flow to increase, two big river-barrier lakes were created: Ciurel, also known as the Mill Lake or the Dambovita Lake, and Vacaresti.



    The large-scale makeover project of the mid 1908s targeting Dambovita had a political component, but also a town planning significance. Here is historian Cezar Buiumaci once again, with the details.



    On July 5, 1985, the Romanian Communist Party’s Central Committee convened a meeting of the Executive Political Committee, highlighting the impending necessity of carrying watercourse arrangement works for Dambovita river as part and parcel of the new Civic Center project. The project included the construction of a big river-barrier lake in the western part of the city, with the purpose of storing an important volume of water required for the clean-water supply of Dambovita river. It had also been though out as a protection system in the event of the rivers’ bursting their banks, at once being a pleasure lake. Watercourse arrangement works also targeted the sanitizing of Dambovita river as it was flowing through Bucharest, the improvement of the climate, the creation of proper navigation facilities and the carrying of construction works for the Bucharest – River Danube waterway. Works took off as soon as the official consent was given, by dint of Decree no. 201 issued on July 12, 1985.



    However, in spite of all that, the idea of Dambovita river’s navigability would be given up on, as soon as specialists were consulted. On September 28, 1985, the construction site was opened festively, while almost a year later, in August 1986, the gates were be closed, of the Ciurel dam.



    Historian Cezar Buiumaci:



    On August 21, 1986, the large-scale work was completed for the Ciurel river-barrier lake, Bucharest’s biggest artificial lake, stretching along a surface area of 240 hectares, with a total capacity of 20 million cubic meters and meant to provide the supply of drinkable, irrigation and industrial water. The river-barrier water lake also had the purpose of collecting the water from floodwaters. The undertaking also included river bank protection works, upstream of the lake, until Dragomiresti-Deal, along 5 kilometres, or thereabouts. A surface area of more than 1,100 hectares of farmland was thus protected, as well as other categories of investments lying in the proximity of the river bed. For the water to be evacuated, a river dam was built, nearby the Ciurel bridge, it was made of ferro-concrete, with 3 dams having a 6-meter span each. The sea of Crangasi has a depth of 5 to 10 meters and is embanked with a dam made of thick clay, obtained from the excavation operations for the valley of the lake.



    However, the large-scale project meant the relocation of a cemetery and of several human communities that inhabited the area. According to the urban legends, sometimes human bodies could be seen floating on the water, so the lake was dubbed the Death Lake, a play upon words, in Romanian, with Lacul Morii becoming Lacul Mortii.



    Cezar Buiumaci:



    Here, apart from other objectives, there was a cemetery around Crangasi church and the decision was taken, for the cemetery to be dismantled and the human remains to be relocated to the Giulesti-Sarbi cemetery. In early 1985, disinterment works began. The timeframe for that kind of work was limited, the employees were unable to meet their deadlines and the gravediggers from other cemeteries refused to help with the dismantling, so sanitation workers were employed instead. The construction of the lake on the premises of the former cemetery, that still makes the topic of several urban legends.



    Another purpose for the construction of Lacul Morii, the Mill Lake was that of doing leisure and sports activities.



    Historian Cezar Buiumaci:



    Since it was built in a densely-populated area, the Dambovita lake also had to cater for a cultural and sports component. Being an area where the access from other districts could be made using the underground thoroughfare but also the surface public transport, arrangements were designed for ground and nautical sports: sports fishing wharfs and an island with a surface area of roughly 5 hectares. For its greater part, it was built by workers from other enterprises doing community work, they put in more than 70,000 hours in terms of workload until September 2, 1987.



    The Mill Lake in north-western Bucharest, for quite some time now, has been a noted landmark of the city. The development of the last three decades, the events that have been staged there as well as the natural climate that has been created in the meantime have made the lake increasingly attractive.


    (EN)