Electric Castle is the coolest music festival you’ve never heard of. It takes place in an old Transylvanian castle outside Cluj Napoca, in the northern part of Romania. We booked tickets kinda at the last minute for the 9th annual festival and made our way from Albania to attend. We didn’t really know what to expect, but the lineup looked good, so we went for it. And it was the best decision we ever made!
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The Music Festival in a Transylvanian Castle
Electric Castle takes place over 5 days in mid-July, and it’s still so new this is only its 10th year running! It brings in an international lineup with world-famous headliners and up-and-coming artists performing on about a dozen themed stages. The party never stops, and you can even find a DJ set on — in the old horse stables — at 6 am. They decorate the outside of the castle every night with a dynamic, ever-changing light show.
It’s called Banffy Castle, after the aristocratic family that originally built it. It’s in the village of Bontida, 30 minutes from Cluj Napoca. If you don’t come to Romania for Electric Castle, you can also tour the castle and the grounds any other time of the year.
The Transylvanian castle was originally built in the 1500s, but burned down during the Second World War. Since then, it has slowly been rebuilt through historical conservation efforts. I don’t know who was crazy enough to reach out and be like, “Uh, hi, can we have a music festival here?” but it worked and now it’s awesome.
How much does it cost to go to Electric Castle?
Partying at this Transylvanian castle is way cheaper than the big festivals in Europe. Generally speaking, the cost of living in Romania is much lower than other European countries. So everything from the ticket price and accom to food and transport will be more affordable.
Ticket price
Our full-price general access passes to this Transylvanian castle festival were €150 each. For comparison, a ticket to Primavera is €250, Tomorrowland €304, and Glastonbury £355 (€415). We also didn’t get the early bird price, so there are opportunities to find them a bit cheaper. Right now (March 2024) GA passes are €129, but it looks like they’ll be going up to €200.
Still cheaper than most other festivals, and pretty good for 5 days of non-stop music!
Accommodation (Unfortunately, you can't sleep IN the Transylvanian castle)
There are two major options for accom at Electric Castle: camping on site or staying in Cluj and catching public transport every day. We chose the latter because we were on a year-long trip and both had two big suitcases and two carry-on sized bags with our laptops and everything. It just felt like camping was too risky if it was rainy or if the locks weren’t very secure.
It’s also certainly the louder option as lots of your neighbours may be keen to keep the party going. But if you’re just going for the festival, camping is the best way to get amongst it and have the full experience!
Festival accommodation
There’s a huge range of options. On the low range, there’s car camping (BYO stuff), RV camping, and pre-pitched tents that come with an inflatable mattress.
On the high end, you can book a “Dream Tent” that sleeps 7, or a “Swedish Lodge,” which has 4 bunks with bedding, lighting, and outlets for charging.
There are bathroom and shower facilities on site, and the campground is about a 2-minute walk from the festival entrance.
Prices range from €20 to €136/night, plus the flat “camping pass” fee of €59 per person, which covers you for the whole duration of the festival.
Accommodation in Cluj Napoca
Cluj is about half an hour from Banffy Castle, so it’s easy enough to stay in the city and travel to the festival every day.
Electric Castle organizes free buses from the city, and there’s also a train/shuttle combo you can take. Obviously you can drive but like… why would you do that? Even if you don’t drink, traffic will be a nightmare.
There are lots of Airbnbs in the city centre starting at around €50, and hotels starting at €80. But I do recommend booking as early as you can! Our Airbnb in the Old Town ended up being pretty grim because we booked so last minute and it’s all that was left lol. But it was cheap!
How much did it cost me to go to a festival in a Transylvanian castle?
All up, including tickets, a week at an Airbnb in Cluj, and all the food, drinks, and activities we did the entire time (both at the festival and in the city) we spent a grand total of…
€580 per person.
I think that’s pretty good for an epic week, if you ask me! It doesn’t include the cost of our flight from Albania to Romania, but you could be coming from anywhere.
Side note: I am absolutely obsessed with the TravelSpend app. I used it every single day when we travelled all of last year (and still use it now) to track our spending. My fave things are the daily average view and the pie chart. Who doesn’t love a colourful visual representation of stats?!
The app is free and works just fine like that, but you can only have one budget on the go at a time. I have the pro version so I can track each individual country as a separate page — or use it to track a week at a festival like this! You can get 50% off a year of the pro version with my lil code when you sign up: RUNAWAYWITHME.
How to get to Cluj Napoca, Romania
To be honest, I’d never heard of Cluj Napoca before. But it’s actually Romania’s second-biggest city and well-connected to the rest of Europe. You can catch a direct (but long) train from Bucharest, Brasov, Timisoara, and other major cities in Romania, or from Budapest, Hungary.
According to FlightsFrom, there are direct connections between Cluj and 35 destinations — primarily in Europe, but a few in the Middle East as well.
We moved into a coliving facility in Bucharest after the festival and stayed for a month. So it was a long way to go for a festival, but it gave us a reason to stay in Romania and we loved it!
What to expect at Electric Castle 2024
So far, this year’s lineup includes Massive Attack, Queens of the Stone Age, Bonobo, and Kenya Grace, among many more names that I don’t really recognize.
However, last year’s highlights included Macklemore, Nothing but Thieves, Sigur Ros, George Ezra, Tash Sultana, Iggy Pop, Noga Erez, The Chemical Brothers, and Jamie XX. They even had The Hu, a Mongolian throat singing heavy metal band. So I expect the lineup for 2024 to continue to grow with more unique performers.
There are lots of fun activities all over the grounds, from Jameson tastings to a giant Ferris wheel. They’re almost always FREE and some things even give out little prizes.
You will be offered cigarettes and vapes nonstop. Dunhill Cigarettes and Glo Vape are two of the event’s biggest sponsors. I couldn’t believe that it was ok for brand ambassadors to come up and ask if we smoke, have ever smoked, or want to start smoking. And offering free addictive products! Canada and New Zealand could never.
Also, July in Romania is HOT. Bring lots of sunscreen and a refillable water bottle.
Here’s me doing a silly can-stacking challenge in the heat to win a Ciuc Radler and these cool impractical sunglasses.
Things to know before going to this Transylvanian castle festival
- Currency
The leu, singular, or lei, plural.
10 Lei (RON) = 2 Euros (EUR)
I just put everything in the article in euros for simplicity. - Language
Romanian, which is Latin-based so has some similarities to French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. English is widely spoken, especially around the festival and in Bucharest. - Safety
You have to lookout for pickpockets like anywhere else in the world, but overall we felt very safe the whole time we were there. - History
Romania was part of the Soviet Union and a communist country until 1989. There’s still some dispute between Hungary and Romania as to whether the country “deserves” Transylvania. But tensions don’t run high, and overall the two countries are pals. - Food culture
The communist era influenced the food culture because even staple groceries were rationed for years. As a result, traditional dishes include a lot of cabbage and bread, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good! You can get some crackin’ stews in a bread bowl. - Fun fact
The flag is exactly the same as the African country of Chad. (Three vertical stripes in blue, yellow, and red from left to right.) The only difference is that technically, the blues are different shades, but it’s basically unperceivable.
Dance the night away in a Transylvanian castle!
Get your tickets to Electric Castle 10 (2024) here.