ARTmania Festival, strategic partnership with Inferno Metal Festival & Music Conference and Midgardsblot Festival

Three stages in Sibiu ▪Launch party in Bucharest

ARTmania Festival launches a strategic partnership with Inferno Metal Festival & Music Conference and Midgardsblot Festival, two of the most important musical events in Norway, and will run for 12 months a series of events under the title “Musical Bridges Through Cultural Entrepreneurship”. 

By developing this strategic partnership with leading Norwegian cultural operators from rock-metal scene and with partner ARTmania Cultural Association, the project will significantly increase access to cultural products by presenting a complex of 13 artistic experiences.  

The project started in November 2022 and will be implemented in historic squares in Sibiu, the Rockefeller and John Dee halls in Oslo and the Park of Borre in Horten.

ARTmania Festival 2023, which will take place in Sibiu from 28 to 30 July, is an important event in the project.    

In addition to the Romanian-Norwegian music curatorial concept, the project will bring new visual concepts through contemporary art installation design and new-media under the title “Asgard in Transylvania – Voice of Odin, Freyja’s Weeping, Yggdrasil and ARTmania Spot”. 

Thus, the three stages of the festival will be art installations presented in the central squares of Sibiu and, in part – “ARTmania Spot” – at partner events in Norway.  

Romanian bands will perform at the Inferno and Midgardsblot festivals, where Romanian contemporary art performances will also be presented, and Norwegian bands will be part of the ARTmania 2023 festival line-up.    

For the “Voice of Odin” stage at ARTmania Festival 2023, the concept will be based on rock-metal, while “Freyja’s Weeping” will be dedicated to acoustic music. A performance will be presented at “Yggdrasil” and an internationally known Norwegian artist will perform on the main stage, “ARTmania Spot”. 

On the other side, the audience at Inferno Metal Festival 2023 and Midgardsblot Festival 2023 will attend concerts and performances by Romanian artists. 

“This partnership is a response to the need of access of rock-metal audience in Romania to quality artistic products, but also to the need to develop the artistic skills and professionalism of Romanian musicians working in the rock-metal area. We are delighted to collaborate with Inferno Metal Festival & Music Conference and Midgardsblot Festival and we are looking forward to the events we are preparing in the coming year”, said Codruța Vulcu, founder and director of ARTmania Festival and president of the Romanian Association of Concert and Cultural Events Organizers – AROC.

The Norwegian band Emperor has been confirmed for next year’s ARTmania Festival. SAMAEL (Switzerland), Pain of Salvation (Sweden) will also perform, and new names will be announced in the coming weeks. 

A new headliner will be announced on 23 November 2022 at a press conference, followed by a progressive rock party at Quantic club in Bucharest. Public access to the event will be free of charge, and this event will represent the last chance for fans to buy passes for the festival for 350 lei/piece (about 72 euro) + taxes. Until that date, passes for ARTmania Festival 2023 can be purchased on the official website (www.artmaniafestival.ro) and on iabilet.ro for 350 lei/piece + taxes. From that day on the price will be modified. 

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„Musical Bridges Through Cultural Entrepreneurship” is financed with the support of EEA Grants within the RO-CULTURE Programme. The project has a non-reimbursable value of 980.230,30 lei (198.102,36 euro) and is carried out over a period of 12 months.

The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards a green, competitive and inclusive Europe. There are two overall objectives: reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe, and to strengthen bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics. The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The donors have provided €3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes between 1994 and 2014. For the period 2014-2021, the EEA Grants amount to €1.55 billion. More details can be found on www.eeagrants.org și www.eeagrants.ro.

RO-CULTURE Programme is implemented in Romania by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit. The Programme aims at strengthening social and economic development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The total budget amounts to almost 34 million EUR. For more details access www.ro-cultura.ro.

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ARTmania Festival, the first Romanian festival that developed the idea of combining art and entertainment in Romania, is a platform dedicated to promoting all forms of artistic expression inspired by rock culture. 

Since 2006, ARTmania has established itself as the main regional promoter of contemporary music projects. Music is the core component, but it is only a part of the experience that ARTmania Festival wanted to offer to art lovers from Romania and abroad. From the very beginning, ARTmania was conceived as a cultural platform to offer the public various events and ways to experience different forms of artistic expression, such as concerts, exhibitions, book launches and film screenings. 

As the longest-running rock festival in Romania and one of the brands with the longest tradition on the regional cultural scene, ARTmania has shaped its own identity through a bold concept and a special environment: the Great Square of one of the most beautiful medieval fortresses in Eastern Europe. 

ARTmania is constantly exploring new directions, building on the experience of previous editions where many important artists have performed. Among them are Steven Wilson, Peter Hammill, Serj Tankian, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater, Opeth, Die Toten Hosen, Nightwish, Within Temptation, Apocalyptica, HIM, The Gathering, The Sisters of Mercy, Anathema, Apocalyptica, Lacuna Coil, Helloween, Lacrimosa, Poets of the Fall and Deine Lakaien.