For more info please see: http://www.blues-festival.ro/index.html

• 25th February: Raul Kusak (Romania); Homemade Jamz (USA)
• 26th February: Eden Brent (USA); Sue Foley (Canada)
• 27th February: Doug Macleod (USA); Eric Sardinas (USA)

7 days of electronic music in Carol Park, district 4. For more info see: http://www.7festival.ro

Current Line-Up:

• Ricardo Villalobos
• Richie Hawtin
• Sander Van Doorn
• Eric Prydz
• Zip
• Tanya Vulcano
• Junkie XL
• Clive Henry

Plus more…

Ticket price: TBA

Bucharest International Jazz Competition sees bands, instrumentalists, and vocalists from all over the world visiting the city to compete for total prizes worth €7000. Participants must be under thirty-five to enter. Concerts are held mainly in the Hard Rock Cafe and Auditorium Hall.

In May Bucharest will step back in time for the Bucharest of Old festival, celebrating the city as it was 200 years ago. The festivities include parades of 19th-century costumes, rides in horse-drawn carriages, traditional food and musical performances.

First held in 2005, Bucharest’s International Film Festival, or B-EST IFF, opens the city’s Cultural Spring celebrations. Partnered by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, it offers a busy week of screenings, masterclasses and retrospectives.

In addition to the three competitions – for features, fictional shorts and documentaries – there are various other sections to Bucharest’s International Film Festival. Each year these include a survey of award winners from other big festivals like Cannes, Venice and Berlin, and a similar selection from American independent festivals such as Sundance, New York and Toronto.

Main notable features:

• h is not silent like in other Romance languages such as Spanish and French.
• j represents the sound spelled with s in the English words vision, pleasure, and treasure.
• There are two letters with a comma below (ş and ţ) which represent the sounds ‘sh‘ and ‘ts‘.
• A final i after a consonant often represents the palatalization of the consonant and is not pronounced like in Italian. This is an example of the slavic influence in Romanian.
• ă represents the ‘a’ sound in apple.
• î and â have a sound similar to ‘er’ in English. For example ‘runner‘.
• x represents either ‘eks‘ or ‘egs‘ (excelent and exemplu).

Further sounds:

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Here is a consolidated list of various language learning posts:

Lessons

Basis Words & Phrases

Numbers

Pronunciation & Spelling Rules

Texts

Vlad Dracula & Other Rulers

WW1 – WW2

Stray Dogs

Hello – Buna ziua

Valentines Day is celebrated all over the world on the 14th February. Although in recent years Romanians have begun to adopt this date, instead they traditionally celebrate Dragobete on the 24th February. Dragobete is a character from Romanian folklore, the son of Baba Dochia.

The day is known as “the day when the birds are betrothed”. It is around this time that the birds begin to build their nests and mate. On this day, considered locally the first day of spring, boys and girls gather vernal flowers and sing together. Maidens used to collect the snow that still lies on the ground in many villages and then melt it, using the water in magic potions throughout the rest of the year. Those who take part in Dragobete customs are supposed to be protected from illness, especially fevers, for the rest of the year. If the weather allows, girls and boys pick snowdrops or other early spring plants (e.g. Lăcrămioară or Lily Of The Valley) for the person they are courting. In Romania, Dragobete is known as a day for lovers, rather like Valentine’s Day.

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