Callatis Festival is the largest music and culture festival held in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Location

The festival is held on a barge that is docked at

Mangalia Marina Mangalia Marina is a harbour for yachts and small boats (up to 18 m long) located on the Black Sea coast. It is the most modern tourist harbour in Romania.

. The barge consists of a huge stage and a very large backstage area, enough to hold over 200 people. The spectators sit on stairs across the harbor, about away from the stage.

History

The Callatis Festival began in 1999 and has expanded ever since.

Dates

The Callatis Festival is held every summer between 8 and 15 August. The main part of the festival (the concerts on the stage) takes begins at 21:00 and ends after midnight. This part of the festival is aired live on

TVR 2 TVR 2 (, spelled out as ''Televiziunea Română 2'', "Romanian Television 2") is the second channel of the public broadcaster TVR. The channel was launched on May 2, 1968, but it was suspended from January 20, 1985, until February 19, 1990. Fr ...

and

TVR International TVRI (, Television of the Republic of Indonesia), legally ( Public Broadcasting Institution Television of the Republic of Indonesia) is a public television network and the oldest television network in Indonesia. Its national headquarters is i ...

Hosts

From 1999 to 2003, the hosts of the Callatis Festival changed every year. Since 2004, the organizers have opted for continuity, so the permanent festival hosts are

Gabriel Cotabiță Gabriel Cotabiță (born 1 November 1955, Craiova) is a Romanian rock vocalist. In 2002 he joined a group of rock musicians and together they formed the band VH2, of which Gabriel is a vocalist. He was also a host of a Callatis Festival and als ...

and Sorana Belciu. Callatis Club, the after-show of the festival, was hosted in 2006 by

Cătălin Măruță Cătălin Constantin Măruță (born 27 January 1978) is a Romanian television host. Career He currently presents the "''La Măruță''" show on Pro TV. Since June 2002, he has been the host of the "''Tonomatul DP2''" show on TVR 2. For a few mon ...

. In 2006, Sorana Belciu was replaced by two young presenters selected in the Miss Diaspora contest. After a year's break, Callatis Club returned to Romanian Television in 2008, presented by

Leonard Miron Leonard Miron (born April 11, 1969) is a Romanian television and radio presenter and journalist and works for Romanian National Television (''Televiziunea Română''). He was born in Galaţi, Romania but was brought up in Piteşti and graduated f ...

Schedule

Every year the Callatis Festival has themed nights. There is Europa Top Hit night where all the major Romanian music stars gather,

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

night, and Miss Diaspora night where

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

girls living in foreign countries compete with each other in a beauty contest.

Foreign artists

Al Bano Albano Antonio Carrisi (; born 20 May 1943), better known as Al Bano, is an Italian tenor, actor, and winemaker. He is one of the most recognisable Italian singers in the world whose career spans 7 decades. He has gained notability due to his vo ...

came to the festival in 2003 and

Panjabi MC Rajinder Singh Rai (Punjabi language, Punjabi: ਰਜਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ), better known by his stage name Panjabi MC, is a British Indians, British-Indian recording artist, rapper, producer and DJ. He is best known for the worldwide 2002 ...

in 2004. In 2005, the big foreign star at the festival was

In-Grid Ingrid Alberini (born 11 September 1978), known by her stage name In-Grid, is an Italian dancer and singer-songwriter. Her 2003 club song "Tu es foutu", (English title: "You Promised Me"), charted in several European countries, Australia, Latin A ...

, the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

chanteuse and, in 2006, Vaya con Dios performed at the festival. Their show was viewed by about 40,000 people on location, and more than a million live on TV. The band brought 600 pounds of equipment for the 20 songs they performed on stage.

Scandals

In 2005, Europa FM was criticised by Callatis Club show host

because of the radio station's motto: "A radio for millions of people". He stated that this motto did not actually reflect the station's target. In 2006, singer Cream started an argument with host

because she was on the festival's program but did not actually appear on stage. Maria Dragomiroiu,

Mihai Trăistariu Mihai Trăistariu (; born December 16, 1979 in Constanța, Romania), also known as simply Mihai (stylized as M I H A I or MIHAI), is a Romanian singer and songwriter. He is best known for representing Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 ...

, Simplu and Morandi have publicly expressed their disgust regarding the fact that they performed live on stage but their show was not aired on TV due to a mid-show commercial break. Allegedly, they had not been told that their performance would not be aired on TV.

References

External links

The Callatis Festival on mangalia.ro
(in Romanian) {{coord missing, Constanța County Mangalia Music festivals in Romania Tourist attractions in Constanța County Summer events in Romania