Panorama Blues Festival

The event is unique not only in the Padurenilor Realm, but also in the musical landscape of Hunedoara County, which in 2019, reached the 7th edition. The festival, which gathers exceptional names from the blues music world, takes place at the Panorama Hostel, on a mountain plateau where you can not only enjoy good music, but also admire a fairytale landscape, surrounded by the peaks of the Retezat, Sureanu and Parang Mountains, and to the west, towards Caras-Severin county, the mountains of Sarcu and Muntele Mic, while having at the north the mountainous peaks of the Apuseni in the horizon.

Blues, sacred concerts and tastings of outdoor cooked food

The organizer of the event, Sergiu Țenț, desired that, through this event, which runs alongside the Enduro Panorama competition, to promote the wonderful Padurenilor Realm and to form a community of good quality music lovers in the middle of nature. Every year in Ghelari, the awareness of the event increased, so blues lovers were coming from hundreds of kilometers, not only from the neighboring counties Timiș, Arad, Caraș-Severin, Alba, Vâlcea, but also from Cluj or Bucharest. Each edition of “Panorama Blues Festival” came with its surprises and firsts, including the international participation of foreign artists (in the case of the latest editions, artists from Hungary and the USA). The event is based on a three-day festival format in which, the singing takes place not only on the scene of the Panorama Hostel. Previous editions have included sacred concerts in the Greek Catholic Church of Ghelari, unique video-music projections that took place in the Govăjdia Blast Furnace, the oldest blast furnace in Europe still standing, but also blues parties for all participants. Among the artists present at the most recent edition were, SOUL SERENADE- 1920’s blues & jazz, RARES ALL MIDNIGHT SUN featuring DEAN BOWMAN (USA), BLUES BROTHERS (HU), RIDE ON BAND, MIKE GODOROJA & BLUE SPIRIT – The Blues Archeology, OXYGEN featuring Eugen Caminschi. The sacred blues concert included Dorian Pîrvu’s performance at the keyboard and Mike Godoroja on vocals. On the last day of the festival, Moșu Florian Lungu spoke about “HUMOR IN JAZZ” the essential moments being highlighted LIVE by the SNACO DIXIELAND group from Sibiu. The festival even included food tastings at the Cauldron with Blues Chef Alex Godoroja, where artists and audiences had the opportunity to interact, but also taste cakes.

A Festival to save the heritage
The concerts held in the oldest still standing flux furnace in Europe, the Govăjdia Blast Furnace, were organized to draw attention to the situation of the furnace which, in the absence of urgent and absolutely vital rehabilitation, is in a state of continuous degradation. A “Concert in three”, with Ada Milea, Anca Hanu and Bobo Burlăcianu, was held at the Govăjdie Blast Furnace. In addition, the organizers tried to come up with solutions to save the monument of industrial architecture: an architect and an engineer presented, besides the history of the place, possible options of capitalization of the monument. It is said that the Govăjdia Furnace produced steel for the famous Eiffel Tour in Paris. The furnace was built in the early 1800s by the Habsburg authorities in Transylvania, being considered the first with a continuous flux in Europe and the second in the world. Today, the furnace, a monument of industrial architecture, is in a state of continuous degradation, despite its enormous tourist potential. The action of promoting the blast through the blues festival is, in fact, a continuation of a series of actions started a year earlier. Then the organizers decided to promote Alun and save the wooden church in the village.

Iris, Night Train and Meteor Shower
Among the artists who came to Ghelari in the previous editions, in a faiytale setting, included Iris, who prepared for Panorama Blues Festival a special program called “Rockin ‘Blues Special”, supported by Nelu Dumitrescu and Nuțu Olteanu. Also, the Panorama Blues festival brought to Ghelari, one of the veterans of the Romanian blues, Vali Răcilă, “Sir Blues” Răcilă, Andrei Cerbu & The Crossroad, Cyfer, the Night Train, Marcian Petrescu, Othello Trio, the relentless Mike Godoroja & The Blue Spirit, but also the actor Eugen Cristea and the plastic artist Adrian Naidin. The shows were extended every year into the night, the concerts being held, most often, under the specific August Meteor Showers.

Where do we find tickets, where do we stay?
In the previous editions, the price of a one-day ticket was about 40 lei, and the tickets could be bought from the Panorama boarding house, and also from the Govăjdie Blast Furnace. Tourists who arrive here for the Panorama Blues Festival can stay at the three guesthouses in the area: Panorama, Camelia and Poiana Codrului or in the nearby villages Teliucu Superior (Plosca), Teliuc or in the leisure area of Lake Cinciș. The organizers announced that, for those who come with the tent, the camping fee at the Panorama Hostel was, in previous editions, 10 lei / person / day, cost including parking and access to the pool.