The incredible SNOWY WHITE, the guitarist of the legendary PINK FLOYD in the promoting tour of the Animals album in 1977, then on The Wall tour in 1980 (year when he also began collaborating with another legend, THIN LIZZY, for Chinatown and Renegade albums), will perform in Eastern European absolute premiere in Bucharest on March 12th 2010, at Hard Rock Cafe.

Since the tours with Roger Waters in the 90s, constantly encouraged by his close friend PETER GREEN (they collaborated also for In The Skies), Snowy White is still proving a special aptitude for the electric guitar, orientating himself towards the traditional Blues with his Blues Project, recognizing the influence of BB King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Albert King on his music.

SNOWY WHITE is thereby considered nowadays one of the best Electric Blues guitarists in the British zone. The sound, technique and style of Snowy White echoed the originality of the Blues with the excitement of contemporary Rock.

Time:
08:00 PM

Cost:
95 lei

Telephone:
+40 21 206 6261

Address:
Hard Rock Cafe Bucharest,
32 Kiseleff Avenue,
District 1,
011343 Bucharest,
Romania

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.

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.

It is a common belief in some parts of Romania that, during this celebration, if you step over your partner’s foot, you will have the dominant role in your relationship. Dragobete customs vary from region to region.

In Romania, Christmas is known as Craciun and Santa Claus is called Moș Craciun

Christmas in Romania has retained all its religious and folk traditions. Red, black and white are the colors associated with the traditional Romanian folk costume. Black represents the winter night, which falls very early in December, red is for the finery of the children who go caroling through the streets on Christmas eve, and white is for the snow that blankets the country, sparkling under the stars for as far as the eye can see.

The Christmas tree is decorated on Christmas Eve about 10 o’clock with walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, candies, apples and chocolates wrapped in colored paper.

Then the children set out through their neighborhood or village, caroling from house to house. As they go from door to door, the “colindatori” are given traditional treats in return: “covrigi” (large dry pretzels), doughnuts, candies, apples and money.

After Midnight Mass, children clean and polish their best pair of boots and place them at the front door for Santa Claus to find. It’s there that he’ll leave presents for the youngest children who have already gone to bed.

Christmas is also the time for pork butchering on every Romanian farm. Slaughtered on St. Ignatius’ day, a few days before Christmas, the pig is meticulously transformed into smoked ham, sausages and charcuterie products.

The traditional Christmas meal unfolds as follows:

First Courses
“Racituri” or “piftie,” jellied headcheese, consisting of the pig’s feet, ears and head in aspic, accompanied by a grated horseradish and beet salad marinated in vinegar, water and sugar.

Fresh pork sausages, either grilled or fried, garnished with “muraturi” (cucumber pickles), as well as hot peppers and green tomato pickles.

Various traditional charcuterie products are served: “toba,” pork intestine stuffed with meat jelly, liver and rind; “caltabos,” a kind of blood sausage; “babic” and “ghiudem,” varieties of sausage, very dry and highly spiced, made from goat, mutton or beef.

Beef salad – steamed or boiled vegetables: carrots, celery, potatoes, peas and pickled vegetables (cucumbers, tomato peppers and green tomatoes), all finely chopped and combined with olives and strips of cooked beef and bound with mayonnaise.

Main Dishes
“Ciorba de perisoare” – a slightly sour vegetable soup made with fermented bran and pork meatballs.

“Sarmale” – Romanians’ best-loved traditional dish – sour cabbage leaves stuffed with ground pork and served with polenta.

Roast pork – garnished with pickled vegetables or mixed salads.

Desserts
The traditional Christmas dessert is called “cozonac.” This rich fruit bread requires a long preparation time that begins early on the morning of Christmas Eve. Usually while the men are outdoors butchering the pig, the women stay in the kitchen to make the cozonac.

Since it takes so long to make, cozonac is made in huge quantities. It has to feed the entire family throughout the week of Christmas. “For 5 kg of flour, 30 eggs are used and 3 kg of white sugar. Kneading the dough lasts at least two hours.”

The filling is made up of ground walnuts, egg yolks, raisins, vanilla, rum and no less than 2 kg of sugar! In well-to-do homes, cozonac replaces bread at every meal, served with both savory and sweet dishes. This may seem a very rich diet… but keep in mind that the holidays have been preceded by one to five weeks of fasting. What’s more, the temperature in Romania at Christmas can easily dip to -15° C, so the extra calories are required!

When it comes to sweets, cheesecake is the dessert traditionally associated with religious holidays in Romania. Every region has its own version.

In some regions “grau fiert” is served: sweetened boiled wheat garnished with nuts and various flavorings.

Traditional Beverages
Țuica or palinca – very strong eau-de-vie, usually made from plums Wines – mostly reds, depending on the region