Romanian execs slam Minaj’s ‘safety concerns’ claim
Romanian promoters have attempted to set the record straight after Nicki Minaj cancelled a performance in Bucharest due to “safety concerns”.
The Trinidadian-born rapper was due to make her Romanian debut at the fourth edition of SAGA festival on Sunday (7 July) but cancelled her appearance mere hours before her stage time citing “safety concerns regarding protests in the area”.
“I have been advised by my security detail not to travel to Romania,” she wrote on social media. “I have to make sure I’m making sound decisions”.
The cancellation came a day after Minaj arrived 90 minutes late onstage in Dublin – leaving fans waiting in the pouring rain – and performed for less than an hour.
She also rescheduled a gig in Manchester and cancelled a second show in Amsterdam in May following an arrest over possession of drugs.
“All kinds of jokes have been made that Romania must have the most violent accountants in the world”
Codruța Vulcu, owner and CEO of ARTmania, Romania’s longest-running rock festival, tells IQ it was “strange” to hear of Minaj’s reason for cancelling her SAGA appearance.
“There was a scheduled, authorised protest on Monday organised by accountants and fiscal advisers,” she explains. “However, with an estimated attendance of a maximum of a couple of thousand people, all safety and security threats were extremely low.
“I know we are all wary of our accountants with their deadlines and paperwork requests,” she jokes, “But cancelling a show for such a protest is inexplicable to me. There is no unrest, not even something close to it.”
Guido Janssens, managing partner of Bucharest-based promoter Emagic, adds: “I laughed when I heard about it. All kinds of jokes have been made that Romania must have the most violent accountants in the world.
“The country is full of events and we have a major international artist cancelling a performance because of a peaceful protest with a few thousand people five or six kilometres from the festivals?”
“It gives the world this idea that Romania is a country that’s not safe”
Janssens adds that he feels sorry for the organisers and suggests that Minaj could’ve avoided a last-minute cancellation.
“It’s important to note that the protest was officially announced on 4 July, one day before the festival started and three days before Nicki Minaj was supposed to go on stage,” he says. “So if it was a serious concern, [Minaj] or her head of security could have decided at that moment that it was too dangerous.”
Both promoters have expressed concern that Minaj’s comments have painted Romania in a bad light.
“It gives the world this idea that Romania is a country that’s not safe,” says Janssens, who points out that Romania and Bucharest have recently hosted many major events with no incidents to speak of.
Vulcu testified to his point, adding “During last weekend, there were thousands of other events organised across Romania and none had any issue due to unrest. Just one example out of Bucharest, where Bucharest Municipality organised its OpenStreets event, where over 100,000 people took part.
“Bucharest and Romania’s cities, in general, are among the safest in Europe”
“Bucharest and Romania’s cities, in general, are among the safest in Europe. And nothing spectacular happened this Sunday in Bucharest that could generate an unsettling feeling. Artists, managers, and agents have no reason to feel unsafe about Bucharest or Romania.”
At the time of Minaj’s cancellation, SAGA festival posted a statement saying the dropout “has nothing to do with SAGA, and is beyond our powers,” adding that refunds will be offered.
“The news has left us all devastated, and we know it’s a huge disappointment for all of you, just as it is for us,” the statement continued.
IQ has reached out to SAGA and the event’s promoter ALDA for further comment.
Minaj’s performance at SAGA is part of her largest tour to date, Nicki Minaj Presents: Pink Friday 2 World, which spans almost 40 concerts across North America and Europe.
The rapper’s next performance is scheduled for this Friday (12 July) at Wireless festival in Finsbury Park, London.
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Romania’s Saga festival reveals new venue for 2022
Leading dance music promoters Insomniac and Alda have announced a new location for their Romanian festival, Saga.
Saga’s inaugural edition took place across three days in September at Bucharest’s Romaero SA airfield with acts including Don Diablo, Carl Cox and Tiësto.
The electronic dance event will return to the Romanian capital in June 2022, this time taking place at Bucharest’s National Arena (cap. 55,000) and the surrounding park area.
Afrojack, Marshmello and Timmy Trumpet are set to headline the event, with more artists to be announced on 2 December.
In celebration of Saga’s new home, Alda has planned a special event at the National Arena on 1 December, Romania’s National Day.
Afrojack, Marshmello and Timmy Trumpet are set to headline the event, with more artists to be announced on 2 December
According to the promoter, there will be a “dramatic” fireworks display around the stadium during an exclusive on-location DJ performance supported by Du Mad and Kov.
The event will be broadcast live and, during this time (19:00 and 00:00 EET), those who have registered for ticket information on the Saga Festival website will be able to purchase tickets for next year’s edition at a special price. General ticket sales will then commence on 2 December.
Alda and Insomniac, based in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, respectively, have been partners since October 2018, when majority Live Nation-owned Insomniac acquired a 50% stake in Alda.
Insomniac has produced more than 2,000 events since 1993, including Electric Daisy Carnivals in North America, Japan, China and Mexico, and Nocturnal Wonderland, the US’s longest-running dance music event.
Alda, meanwhile, is behind events including A State of Trance in Utrecht, New Horizons in Germany (a JV with CTS Eventim) and Amsterdam Music Festival, the Netherlands’ largest indoor music festival.
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Romania’s Saga festival draws 45,000 for debut
Leading dance music promoters Insomniac and Alda welcomed 45,000 guests to the inaugural edition of Saga, Romania’s first large-scale music festival since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The electronic dance event took place between 10–12 September in the Romanian capital of Bucharest and drew both domestic and international guests.
The three-day event featured some of the biggest names in electronic music including Don Diablo, Carl Cox, Tiësto, Topic, Allan Walker, Fisher and Sigala, who performed across four stages.
Alda and Insomniac, based in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, respectively, have been partners since October 2018, when majority Live Nation-owned Insomniac acquired a 50% stake in Alda.
“We found a place we can call home… Saga has Bucharest and Bucharest has Saga”
Insomniac has produced more than 2,000 events since 1993, including Electric Daisy Carnivals in North America, Japan, China and Mexico, and Nocturnal Wonderland, the US’s longest-running dance music event.
Alda, meanwhile, is behind events including A State of Trance in Utrecht, New Horizons in Germany (a JV with CTS Eventim) and Amsterdam Music Festival, the Netherlands’ largest indoor music festival – which was cancelled yesterday.
Following the event, Alda said: “We found a place we can call home… Saga has Bucharest and Bucharest has Saga. During the past three days, we have all seen the beginning of something that goes beyond our imagination. We’ve shared our energy and vibrated together for the first time, all in the name of electronic music.”
Saga was set to debut in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. The festival will return in 2022 at the earlier date of 3–5 June.
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$33m settlement for Ghost Ship fire lawsuits
The city of Oakland has reached a $32.7 million settlement with the families of those killed by the tragic blaze at unlicensed music venue and artists’ collective Ghost Ship in 2016.
The fire, which was the worst structural disaster in northern California since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, killed 36 people in total, most of whom were at Ghost Ship for an electronic music party.
The Oakland City Council has now authorised the settlements of lawsuits filed by the families of 32 victims.
“This was a horrific tragedy that deeply impacted every corner of our community,” reads a statement from the city attorney’s office. According to the statement, the city decided to settle because of the possible legal costs, and does not acknowledge any liability for the incident.
“This was a horrific tragedy that deeply impacted every corner of our community”
Prosecutors contend that Derick Almena, the master tenant on the warehouse lease, was criminally negligent when he converted and sublet the space as a residence for artists and an event venue.
Almena was charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, with a retrial – following an initial mistrial – scheduled for October. A co-defendant, Max Harris, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter charges last year, while the building’s owner, Chor Ng, has not been charged with a crime.
The blaze, which was believed to have been caused by an electrical fire, echoed another tragic incident at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, the same year, which claimed the lives of 64 people.
Last year, prison sentences were handed out to 13 people in conjunction with the Colectiv fire, including the venue owners, pyrotechnic specialists and city officials.
Photo: Jim Heaphy/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) (cropped)
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Thirteen convicted over Bucharest nightclub fire
A court in the Romanian capital of Bucharest has today (Monday 16 December) handed prison sentences to 13 people in conjunction with a deadly fire that broke out in the 700-capacity Colectiv nightclub in 2015.
The blaze, which started after fireworks ignited inflammable acoustic foam at a show by metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity on 30 October 2015, killed 64 people, including four of the five band members.
The tragic fire sparked sweeping reforms to both venue regulation and the political system in Romania. However, many criticised a lack of punishment for those who played a role in the tragedy.
Now, over four years since the incident, the first convictions have been made, with 13 individuals deemed responsible for the fire receiving a combined 115 years and six months in prison.
In addition to the prison time, the Bucharest court ordered authorities found guilty of negligence to pay €50 million to the survivors of the fire and the families of those who died. Individual amounts range from €50,000 to €900,000.
Colectiv’s owners Anastasescu George Alin, Mincu Costin and Gancea Paul-Cătălin are each facing prison sentences of eleven years and eight months.
Now, over four years since the incident, the first convictions have been made
Niţă Daniela Ioana, the owner of the company that supplied the fireworks, received a sentence of twelve years and eight months in prison, whereas fellow owner Niţă Cristian Mihai was sentenced to three years and six months.
Zaharia Viorel and Moise Marian, pyrotechnic experts working on the show, received sentences of nine years and eight months and ten years in prison respectively.
The former mayor of Bucharest’s sector 4 municipality was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for issuing operating permits to Colectiv, with other local politicians receiving sentences of between three and eight years.
Two firemen were each handed sentences of nine years and two months.
All convictions can be challenged in a higher court.
A documentary entitled Colectiv, which follows the aftermath of the fire and ensuing anti-corruption investigations, premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year.
Photo: Eugen Simion/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Alda, Insomniac launch Romanian festival Saga
Leading dance music promoters Insomniac and Alda have announced the launch of a new three-day festival in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Saga Festival, billed as the first major music festival in Bucharest, will take place from 5 to 7 June 2020 and promises performances from more than 150 artists over three stages.
Alda and Insomniac, based in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, respectively, have been partners since October 2018, when majority Live Nation-owned Insomniac acquired a 50% stake in Alda.
Insomniac has produced more than 2,000 events since 1993, including Electric Daisy Carnivals in North America, Japan, China and Mexico, and Nocturnal Wonderland, the US’s longest-running dance music event. Alda, meanwhile, is behind events including A State of Trance in Utrecht, New Horizons in Germany (a JV with CTS Eventim) and Amsterdam Music Festival, the Netherlands’ largest indoor music festival.
According to the partners, Saga marks “a new beginning for the eastern European festival scene” and “a landmark moment for the people of Bucharest, serving as the city’s first-ever major music festival of such impressive scale”.
The festival additionally promises an “immersive storytelling experience” alongside the over 350 shows.
https://www.facebook.com/ALDANetherlands/videos/720684698422911/
Tickets for Saga go on sale this Friday (6 December), priced from 99 lei (€21).
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Blaze destroys ‘unlicensed’ Bucharest club Bamboo
Bamboo, the Bucharest nightclub which burnt down early on Saturday morning, injuring more than 40 people, did not have an operating licence, a local government spokesman has revealed.
According to eyewitness reports, the blaze – which has echoes of the deadly fire at the Colectiv club, which lacked the proper fire permits, in October 2015 – was sparked by clubgoers smoking inside the venue. In a statement, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said the city had been “very close to another big tragedy. Rules and laws have apparently been broken again.”
A number of Bucharest venues lacking fire exits were shuttered in the aftermath of the Colectiv disaster, which left 64 dead, and several more, including Expirat, La Bonne Bouche and Biutiful, were forced to close by a new law forbidding public gatherings in buildings considered to be unsafe in the event of an earthquake. Smoking was also banned indoors.
Speaking to Mediafax, a spokesman for Sector 2 – one of six administrative units (sectoare) of the city of Bucharest – said Bamboo had recently been fined for operating without a licence. “The club had a building permit for an expansion, which had been issued in 2012, but the work hadn’t been finalised,” he explained. “The club didn’t have an operating licence and was fined last year. This year, they were going to be fined again.”
The 2,000-capacity club, one of Romania’s most famous, opened in 2002 and was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 2005.
“The club didn’t have an operating licence and was fined last year. This year, they were going to be fined again”
The blaze comes after a series of early victories for fledgling Romanian promoters’ association Aroc. Founded in September 2016 – partly in response to the Colectiv fire – its members include ARTmania Festival, Emagic, Electric Castle Festival, Summer Well Festival, Sunwaves Festival, Twin Arts, Metalhead, Amphitrion, Wise Factor, Plai Festival and Mozaic Jazz Festival.
“Romanian promoters have never been actively involved in the process of regulating or controlling it [the industry], Aroc chairwoman Codruţa Vulcu, of ARTMania, says. “What became clear after the Colectiv fire, where we all lost friends and colleagues, is that we need to be better organised so that safety is improved everywhere and the professionals who work so hard in this country to put on concerts and festivals are not associated with those elements who cut corners and ignore regulations just to make a quick profit.”
Aroc has already helped block legislation that would have seen 5% of gross ticketing income diverted to a private association – run by the parties who introduced the legislation. Noting the private sector’s outrage, Vulcu says: “How can this even be a discussion in parliament? To tax the people who are investing in the cultural sector and centralise funds, with this private association having the legal right to use the money as it pleases?”
Vulcu vows Aroc’s members are determined to stand their ground and keep pushing for a “less corrupt sector, equitable legislation and a safer industry.”
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Colectiv fire: One year on
Together with the attack on the Bataclan some two weeks later, the tragic fire at the 700-capacity Colectiv nightclub in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on 30 October 2015 is one of the worst disasters to hit the European live music industry – and Europe in general – in living memory. Sixty-four people are known to have died and close to 150 were injured, with many still in hospital, after pyrotechnics ignited inflammable acoustic foam at a show by metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity, with up to 500 people in attendance.
At an event commemorating a year since the disaster last Sunday, Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, paid tribute to the victims and praised the changes implemented in the wake of the disaster, which include the mass closure of unsafe venues, the introduction of an indoor smoking ban and the election of a new ‘technocratic’, non-politically affiliated government led by Dacian Cioloș after the resignation of the previous prime minister, Victor Ponta, amid mass anti-corruption protests triggered by the fire.
“Romania has changed,” he said. “A year later, things have changed for the better. Safety checks are clearer and more common at event venues.”
“A year later, things have changed for the better”
However, Iohannis criticised the speed of investigations into the cause of the fire: public prosecutors have yet to bring anyone to trial for their role in the disaster, despite Colectiv only having one exit and reportedly being well over capacity on the night of the fire. “After one year, we would like to know who is responsible for this terrible accident,” he said.
Speaking to the Associated Press, ‘Flueras’, a 32-year-old music photographer, said survivors are still awaiting the trial of the club’s owners and those involved in the firework show. “Unfortunately, there is no precedent and things haven’t moved quickly,” he said. “The trial hasn’t begun and we are [still] in a preliminary phase.”
In addition to the criminal trials, a total of 248 people are suing Colectiv representatives for damages of more than €212 million.
At ILMC 28 in March, Codruta Vulcu, festival director of Transylvania’s ARTmania, said it “took a tragedy for the government” to take notice of Romania’s music scene. “We have festivals, we have shows, but we have no regulations – or when they do exist they’re not enforced,” she said. “After the fire, the government realised the [55,000-capacity] National Arena had no fire licence!”
“There are more fire extinguishers at clubs and concerts, but I don’t think society is more aware”
Some progress has been made since then: a number of Bucharest venues lacking fire exits were shuttered in the aftermath of the disaster, and several more, including Expirat, La Bonne Bouche and Biutiful, were forced to close by a new law forbidding public gatherings in buildings considered to be unsafe in the event of an earthquake. (A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Vrancea county on 23 September.)
Cioloș’s government also banned smoking in enclosed areas, including bars, venues and restaurants, as of 16 March.
Despite these reforms, many Romanians remain unconvinced the country would be better equipped to deal with another Colectiv should it happen today. “We did not learn a lot from what happened,” Razvan Braileanu, a journalist and musician who survived the fire, tells Reuters’s Romanian correspondent, adding that from his flat he regularly sees fire engines struggling to squeeze past cars parked in his narrow street.
“Sure, there are more fire extinguishers at clubs and concerts – but I don’t think society is more aware.”
“The private sector is now approaching the government to say let’s regulate the industry, let’s make laws a lot clearer”
Speaking to IQ, Vulcu – now also president of newly formed Romanian concert promoters’ association Aroc, which includes ARTmania, the Electric Castle, Sunwaves and Summerwell festivals and Romania’s biggest concert promoter, Emagic – says if there’s one positive to be drawn from the disaster, it’s that Cioloș’s non-political government is now listening to the music industry.
For the first time since the fall of communism, she says, “we’ve found support from the government”, with ministers willing to properly regulate the Romanian live sector. “The private sector is now approaching the [government] to say let’s regulate [the industry], let’s make laws a lot clearer,” she explains. “They say, ‘We understand, we’ll try to change things.'”
Vulcu’s relief at having what she calls Romania’s “first respectable government” in 25 years is, however, tempered by the spectre of the “old communists” in the PSD (Social Democratic Party) returning to power in the upcoming general election on 11 December. She says she “truly hopes”, for the sake of the Romanian music industry, that “this technocrat prime minister [Cioloș] will be willing to say on as an independent”.
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