The story of Romania’s Electric Castle Festival 2019 in pictures

Inside Bánffy Castle you could experience a host of art installations, all of which used light in a different way to create a unique immersive experience for the festival punters.

Tons of attendees queued up to snap a pic in front of Bánffy Castle and the Electric Castle sign.

The entire festival site was your snap happy pal’s dream.

“It’s been a few years, we’ve missed you, Romania!” frontman Justin Young told the crowd midway through The Vaccines’ Friday evening set, before adding: “some of us have sore heads this morning, this afternoon or whatever time it is right now. We had fun last night in your beautiful country!” Hangovers or not, the band still put on a killer set on the festival’s main stage. Blasting through an array of old favourites like ‘Teenage Icon’ and ‘Wetsuit’, as well as new, unreleased tune ‘Let’s Jump Off The Top’.

Friday night headliners Florence + the Machine charmed the thousands of punters watching them. With a tight set of new favourites and old hits, some huge sing-a-long choruses and a moment of phone banishing, it’s a truly breathtaking show.

READ MORE: Florence + the Machine banish phones and create a choir of thousands at Electric Castle headline show

Electronic duo Sofi Tukker brought their hybrid DJ show to Romania for their first performance after several months off, due to guitarist/vocalist Sophie Hawley-Weld breaking her foot. No mishaps here, thankfully.

“I wanna thank… fucking no one! Just me, because I’m the fucking shit!” Tommy Cash told the crowd just before the end of his set. And given the response he’s got during his hour show from the thousands of punters crammed into the Hangar, it’s hard to disagree. The brilliantly bizarre Estonian rapper put on a weird and wonderful show, featuring a career spanning set list and ton of outlandish (and often x-rated) visuals.

READ MORE: Tommy Cash brings his weird and wonderful world to Electric Castle

In between the music attendees could explore the gigantic festival site, that includes loads of gorgeous woodland areas.

At what other festival could you find an ice skating rink in the centre of the site?

Name a better place to grab a drink with your mates than a tipi at a music festival. Thought so.

Plonked in the middle of the site was the huge royal wheel, from which you could see all the festival’s main attractions and beyond.

And if you did have an existential crisis at any point during the weekend, there was a direct line to God available.

Loredana is Romanian pop royalty and it showed during her set. As she strutted around the festival’s mainstage, she received a hero’s welcome. Fans of all ages turned up for the afternoon slot, and at one point huge portions of the crowd all hold hands and dance in circles along to the music (with Loredana at the centre).

Nils Frahm’s stunning ambient sounds were a welcome early evening respite, before a night of drum and base and debauchery.

From the get go fans launched themselves into the crowd for a quick surf during While She Sleeps set.

The Shefield metalcore band opened their volcanic Electric Castle show with ‘You Are We’, and over the next hour blasted through a collection of their own tunes, and a wicked Linkin Park cover.

Saturday headliners brought Bring Me brought their bombastic stage show to Electric Castle, complete with manic dancers, flame throwers and somer seriously trippy visuals.

Throughout the show Oli egged on the crowd to create huge swirling circle pits. “You know what circle pits are in Romania?” he asks at one point, “well let’s see some then!” The crowd obviously oblige.

Lemaitre are a band made for the festival stages. Their own brand of glorious indietronica never sounds better than when heard with a pint in hand, with your pals in a field. And their Electric Castle show was no exception. Blitzing through a set of bubbling house-tinged bops (before finishing with the one-two punch of ‘Big’ and ‘Closer’), their performance was an absolute treat.