The ongoing pandemic has successfully shut down the 2020 festival season and, for a long time, it looked like next year won’t be any better. There is, in turn, a ray of light shining through the gloom: the news about the upcoming vaccines, as well as the emergence of cheap and accessible testing methods that allow the detection of infected individuals quickly and easily have determined some festival organizers to tentatively start planning their 2021 events.

Two Eastern European EDM events – both of them from Romania – have recently given their first updates regarding their 2021 editions. As both of them are close to Sziget – both geographically and calendaristically – we’ll take a look at them today.

Untold (5-8 August 2021, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

The people behind Untold Festival see the recently announced COVID vaccine news as good signs for their upcoming event. As a result, they announced that the festival will be held (hopefully) on the weekend of 5-8 August.

The 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled, and those with tickets and passes had the option to either ask for a refund or transform them into a so-called ANYTIME Pass valid for any of the three upcoming editions of the event. Reportedly, 95% of the early bird buyers did just that.

Electric Castle (14-18 July 2020, Banffy Castle, Cluj, Romania)

The organizers of the long-running Electric Castle went one step further: they announced the first headliners for the 2021 edition of the festival. The list is short – it only contains three bands so far – but this shows that the people behind the event are optimistic.

The three performers announced today are Twenty One Pilots, Gorillaz, and Deftones. At the same time, the festival has announced its early-bird ticket sale: those interested can book so-called FlexiPasses for the Winter Sale Price of 599 lei (around $146 or €123 at today’s exchange rate). The full price of the passes will be 799 lei (approximately $195 or €164). The “Flexi” part means that, in the event of the festival not taking place, those who bought them will get a full refund.