Jazz In The Park: Romania To Host Concerts At Landfill

The Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca has a community of around 1,500 people, living at the local landfill. Fapte, headed by Alin Vaida, the promoters of Jazz In The Park, are going to set up a stage for them at this year’s edition, June 21-July 1.

Marius Maris – Jazz In The Park 2017
The Concerts at the Landfill return

“Cluj-Napoca is a cosmopolitan city with a lot of cultural events, economic opportunities, good universities, active NGOs. But the city also has a ‘dark side’ no one talks about and everyone avoids this subject. The Pata Rât community has little access to education and no access to culture,” the promoter explains.

Vaida introduced the landfill stage in 2017, bringing the total number of stages up to 12. Three of them are located in the city’s central park, which has a capacity of 35,000. Other venues include the Hungarian Opera (882 capacity), the Riverstage (4,000) and /Form Space (700). The Pata Rât stage has space for 3,000 people.

Last year, Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra, Dario Rossi, Taraf de Caliu and Hot Club de Cluj performed on the landfill stage. This year’s Pata Rât line-up hasn’t been announced yet.

Marius Maris – Jazz In The Park 2017
Many in the Pata Rât community are children

The community living at the landfill, surrounded by leftovers and rubbish, in make-shift homes, lives, works, eats and plays at the garbage pit. Their job is to search among leftovers and reuse or sell what they find. Most of them are children with few other options than to start a life begging for money or one of crime.

“We decided to get involved and do something no one did before for the Pata Rât community and also for Cluj. Using the power of our festival, we wanted to raise awareness regarding the problem of those who live in the landfill and help the community have access to culture and education,” the promoter continues.

“We decided to go into their environment, organize jazz concerts there, involve people in our activities and invite people from the city to get to know them and this underdeveloped area. Moreover, another objective was to implement cultural and educational projects with and for this community from the money raised from non-mandatory tickets to the festival.”

Tickets for most of the festival’s stages, with the exception of the Hungarian Opera House and the Art Museum, are optional. People can, but don’t have to, pay a symbolic price of 10 Lei ($2.60), for which they will receive a souvenir festival wristband.

Last year, Jazz In The Park took place over seven days, with an attendance of 71,000, around ten percent of them bought optional tickets. Some $16,000 were raised for the Jazz In The Park fund, which goes toward local community projects.

Buena Vista Social Club’s Juan de Marcos has been confirmed to be headlining the festival’s grand opening, June 21, alongside the Afro-Cuban All Stars, at the Hungarian Opera House.

– Jazz In The Park 2017
The Barcelona Gypsy Balkan Orchestra played the Landfill Stage last year