I have just returned from Electric Castle 2019, one of the most in vogue festivals in Romania now, held in the medieval Bánffy castle in the village Bonțida in Cluj county. #MeetMeAtTheCastle was on everyone’s lips this year, where more than 200,000 people gathered in 5 days of festival.
Colorful, shinny, chill people gathered from all the country and from all across the world as the festival has already made a name of itself across borders. I went only 1 night to see Florence, as this was the name that struck me the most from their line up – a really great one, nonetheless!
The Pure Electrified Energy
I’ve heard that she makes great shows and I have seen her live performances which are really amazing but nothing compares to that pure electrified energy that she projects into the audience, while being on stage. Florence + The Machine made me fly!
Meeting Florence
Barefoot, in a sheer vaporous long dress, she was extremely sexy in a proper light and incredibly decent in another light, equally appealing and fascinating, like a goddess from another time. It’s not the appearance that strikes though, but her powerful provoking voice that offers untamed goose bumps on your back and that unreachable level of energy that I haven’t seen in such a deep, complete passion and abandon of oneself in music in many artists.
Reminds me of Isadora Duncan
Artists shouldn’t be compared, but the feeling and emotion they convey into the audience might be measured and let me say this is one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Her rawness, beauty, pure passion and beautiful pure energy made me instantly love her. She was innocent, childish, yet powerful and in complete command, playful and theatrical, courageous and free. She reminded me of the mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan.
The fact that I loved the most is her engagement with us, her audience. She was in constant connection, while spreading her untamed energy, dancing, jumping, running through the stage and getting off the stage into the audience through the end. She hold hands with the public, singing closely, right in the middle of them.
That Moment when We all Trusted Florence
There was one particular, truly beautiful moment, that made me love her even more. She said:
Now we’re going to do something very strange… You’re not going to like it and it’s going to make you feel scared…
This made me wonder… She continues:
But I want you to trust me… Do you trust me, Electric Castle?
Everybody screamed “Yes!” and jumped up and down!
I would now like every single person at this festival to put their phones…. awaaaay!
This starts to be interesting…
The Collective Experience
You have to help me out here. I mean cameras too… Sir, you need to put your camera away! I need you to take a look around and if you see someone still with a phone or camera or recording device out, I would like you to gently tap on their shoulder and ask to put their phone away. We are trying to have a collective experience!
Or if you would like to learn the proper English phrasing, from jolly old England, like how her Majesty the Queen would say… You can say: ‘Put your Fucking phone away!’
She finishes in a roar of applauses and cheers and continues her blissful show!
Her energy doesn’t drop for a second and continues to grow, it’s filled with the power of the audience and her continuous gratefulness. She is thankful and says it out loud every time she gets the chance.
10 years and you are still here! Thank you! I am humbled!
She finishes the show with a powerful version of ‘What kind of man’ and disappears for a couple of moments, but comes back fast for a bis with even more energy! Every moment you feel that ‘This is it! This is the climax, the most powerful moment of the show!’ and every time Florence surprises with a new one and a new one! Every moment is as intense or even greater than the last!
The Bliss
The audiences sings! We are with her through every single note! The energy is incredible and the love that we feel is hard to describe in words! I feel mesmerized, empowered, energized… I feel that pure happiness, the blissful moment in time… that Awe! moment that we run for all our lives and we gather a few maybe in one year or maybe more, if you are willing to chase more that special moment! You can feel that she is having a great time, she flies and she takes you with her!
