We speak to the man behind Romania’s amazing annual festival…
Hi Guido. An incredible event you put on, thank you for talking to the DMC World. It is fantastic that the festival world has spread across the planet so quickly – countries that you would never have EVER imagined to put on such incredible parties – yours is placed in Bucharest in Romania, near the Dâmbovi?a River. This year you have The Killers, White Lies, Moby, Ayo, Motorhead, Orbital, Franz Ferdinand, the Klaxons, The Charlatans, The Ting Tings – who are you most excited about seeing this year on stage?
“Well Dan, this year we really wanted to put The Killers on, like REALLY want to put The Killers on. Their tour dates didn’t fit in with our date of the festival, so I decided to add another date so we could have them on. A lot of hard work but worth it. A real coup for us and I know they are going to be brilliant.”
Who do you think your crowd that will be coming to your event this year are most excited about seeing?
“Well the Romania festival and music loving crowd is so diverse. For instance, our first event in 2007 saw the likes of Pink, Alice Cooper, Chicks on Speed, Morcheeba. The next year Alanis Morissette, Cypress Hill and the Kaiser Chiefs. What we strive to do is open people’s minds to different music at B’estfest. Putting on Moby and Motorhead this year on the same day – obviously on different stages, paints a picture of what we strive to do. The thing is about our event is that people can buy a ticket for one day or the whole event, some people come just to see one or their two favourite bands, but when they see people they have never seen before it opens their minds – and that’s why it is so worth it.”
So a pretty budget festival compared with other festivals around the world…
“Well if you fly in from the UK it’ll cost you maybe 50 Euros, a beer one Euro and a day ticket 27 Euros. The hotels around the site are very cheap – it really is an amazing festival to come to.”
Most festivals are either one day, some three. You go a little further, how big is your team, it must be a massive operation?
“I have 16 magnificent staff in my office, on each day of the festival 200 people a day running around for me”
How did you get into the festival scene in the first place?
“Well I am from Belgium originally, I fell in love with a girl from Romania and moved to Bucharest with her. My first event saw me hire out the National Football Stadium for a live concert which sold out. I just realised that there was so much potential to bring different music to this country. “
What is the club scene like in Romania?
“It’s busy you know. Kristal is without any doubt one of the best clubs ever built in Romania! Excellent design, 15 video projectors, great acoustics, great space, best DJs in the world spinning by, a great atmosphere. Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk love playing here which is great. The thing about the clubbers here is that it’s like Australia’s clubbing culture – we don’t think about tomorrow – let’s just have fun tonight.”
July 2007 saw you launch with 50,000 people at Romexpo – who was on the line up back then?
“We had Faithless, Morcheeba, Hooverphonic, Yonderboi, Phil Hartnoll and Suie Paparude headlining.”
What do you think are the other best festivals in the world?
“Got great memories from ‘Lowlands’ in Holland. But you know, we put so much work into our event I really have little time to travel to these other events.”
What music do you listen to at home?
“I have had such an eclectic musical career. First gig ACDC, then promoted my first gig with back in the day Technophonic, I listen to anything that’s good. Kaiser Chiefs I love, I even listen to Santana!”
Which band that you have had on over the years has had the biggest rider?
“All my events the bands have really stated that the dressing rooms are ‘smoke free’. Motorhead went the other way!”
And finally, which artist or live act has made the most impression on you when you met them?
“Faithless were amazing to party with, but also an event I put on separate from the festival when I booked Depeche Mode, they blew me away.”