It's funny how you start a community and then you get a bit more motivation to keep promoting the festivals you've attended in the past and reserve a day of the week for festival posts like you are suddenly a festival maniac over the travel lover that marked your life most of the time. At least this is how I feel.
But honestly, the more festivals I attend, the more important I see these in everyone's life no matter the theme behind their name because they gather lots of people in a single place and that's the best way to meet new people who share the same passions with yours, as well as have some fun and create memories that you won't ever forget.
This post though, is going to be a 2 in 1 thingy because I (sort of) attended two festivals on the same day, so I thought about including them both in a single post since they created a great mix of emotions for me and my boyfriend during our walk that day.
The first festival we attended was about street food and this could also make a great team with the 2nd one that we discovered later on, because yes, the 2nd festival is about movies, and while many people enjoy good unhealthy but tasty food while watching a film, I think everything was quite smartly arranged to have them both in the same time.
However, we had this walk just after we had food at home so we weren't there really for tasting food but more for the feeling of attending a few more festivals and experiencing the vibes each one has to offer for those stopping by.
As you can see, the sky was quite gray, so unfortunately the Sibiutiful Street Food Festival didn't manage to gather so many people around especially since there weren't too many food trucks either, and there were a few more things happening in the same time which perhaps seemed a lot more entertaining for the tourists.
Additionally, the street food festival promoted another festival on one of its banners, known as the Romanian-American Musical Days Festival which I shared a bit about over HERE but which I didn't get to taste even just a bit since the concerts were held inside the building and we didn't get any tickets for any of the shows.
After spending a bit more time around the food trucks that I was too shy to take a picture with their menus since I didn't intend to buy any food and didn't want to bother people with my pictures, a few more people started gathering since it was close to the lunchtime, which made me happy because it gave a really strange and sad feeling attending a festival where you can count the people you see on the fingers of your hands.
Another reason why there were so few people around might be because in 2022 it was just the first edition of Sibiutiful Street Food Festival so people were still finding out about it, but overall I did like the place they picked for arranging the food trucks, the way everything was placed in order to have privacy for anyone who wanted so, as well as the big stage that shared music of all genres during the time of the event.
As the day was only at the beginning and we had a different destination for the day that didn't seem like wanting to let the sun bring more people outside the house, we made our way 50m away from where Sibiutiful Street Food Festival was held and ended up next to a church that not only gathers lots of tourists but also represents a great spot where to sit on a bench and take a break from the crowded center of Sibiu.
While on the banner shared above the Transylvania International Film Festival shortly known as "TIFF" was held on Piata Mare, yet the location that was reserved for Sibiutiful Street Food Festival in 2022, this time, the 16th edition of the film festival was split into two locations and two dedicated cinema halls.
The movie we were interested in seeing was supposed to be held right in front of the evangelical church mentioned before but due to the unstable weather conditions, it had to be moved to one of the cinema halls which normally were reserved for other movies.
Even though I would have loved to have this experience of watching a movie outdoors, I still appreciated how fast the organizers found a solution and that everyone was notified in time, hence why the hall was still full at the cinema when the movie started.
While there were still a few hours left before the movie started, we took this opportunity to walk down the streets of Sibiu and admire some more specific architecture that I'm confident everyone will miss in a few years from now on since everything is evolving so quickly and modern stuff replaces history.
Though, a thing that I did enjoy and found really smartly shared, was the slogan of TIFF from 2022 which was Make Films, Not War. Definitely a painful memory since the war is still ongoing and I'm sure everyone feels more or less this fight between Russia and Ukraine, but yet such an intelligent way to show that there are a lot more things that should keep people busy in the 21st century rather than a war.
Once our walk came to an end and made our way to the cinema, we met the same slogan shared everywhere from banners to flyers with the movies that people could watch during the festival, and of course, I had to get one as a memory that still finds its place on the library shelf entirely dedicated to things I've got from the festivals I attended.
After all, they were free and I'm sure at least one of them found a good house where to stay instead of ending up in a trash can.
When the doors were opened and we could enter to find our seats, I had one last picture in front of the official TIFF banner where each actor stopped by, and then entered the hall. Just like I said, every single seat had its owner and it definitely was a successful night with a great movie watched.
The name of the movie we watched is Nunți, botezuri, înmormântări which could be translated as Weddings, baptisms, funerals. It was a Romanian movie with comedy as the main genre and I know that perhaps doesn't say anything to most of you but it was a really good one and we ended up watching it for almost one year before being officially launched in cinemas so I think it was a big win for us.
At the end of the movie we had the honor to meet some of the actors seen in the movie and ask questions, which represented another cool activity and experience since we saw those people just on TV and it made us feel closer to each other in one way or another.
Both festivals did a great job filling our day with lots of different experiences and moods, from plenty of food trucks each with its menu and specialties to a place that represents heaven for movie lovers, so there's really nothing to complain about since the weather conditions are not something that people can control. I actually call myself blessed to be able to attend both festivals even on a very rainy period since I'm used to seeing festivals being postponed or canceled instead of finding a plan B so quickly.
Even if the street food festival is not the biggest and most important event of this kind held in town, it represents the first festival with food held in the summer which makes it a great way to get used to the upcoming events, and for us, it worked just great getting a bit of that mood. The TIFF festival though, is at the opposite pole representing the first and largest festival dedicated to featuring films in Romania which not for a few times ended up being awarded with lots of prizes from more important movie events that are held out there.
- Sibiutiful Street Food Festival facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/524313449362417/
- Transylvania International Film Festival facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/5287313917957640
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Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additonally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (260+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 550+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.
~ @GabrielaTravels ~
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