Electric Castle review: 10th anniversary party can‘t be derailed
Despite lightning storms and acts stranded due to a global IT outage, the Transylvanian event battles through for an eclectic and thrilling celebration.
Drive for just under an hour from Transylvania’s honorary capital Cluj-Napoca, and you’ll come to Bánffy Castle, the home of one of the most eclectic music festivals on the continent. Proudly placing heavy metal and hip-hop alongside dancehall and drum and bass, the tenth edition of Electric Castle values vibes and energy above genre and trends. Even without acts stranded thanks to a global internet bug, including Kenya Grace, Wargasm and Sleaford Mods, this is a line-up full of crowd pleasers across ten stages that are as eclectic as they are stacked with talent.
There’s something for everyone in each corner of the castle grounds, but there’s only one band on everyone’s lips (and t-shirts) on this warm Friday night. Bring Me The Horizon’s third time at Electric Castle sees them splice together their original deathcore sound with more recent forays into pop-punk and electronica, embellished by pyrotechnics and Final Fantasy-style backdrop projections. Bring Me The Horizon are at the peak of their powers, grabbing fans by the throat from the start of ‘DArkSide’ and squeezing right through to the end of tried and tested closer ‘Throne’. This is a start befitting of the festival’s name: totally electrifying.
This electricity triggers a Saturday lunchtime lightning storm, but thankfully Khruangbin are the perfect act to part the dark clouds, using their psychedelic guitar lines and Caribbean-funk basslines to get the crowd moving. From the Texas sun to a smoke-filled Bristol nightclub, trip-hop heroes Massive Attack provide a pick-n-mix of their biggest hits, performed alongside a catalogue of guests including Mercury Award-winning prog-hip-hop trio Young Fathers. Flying high with ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and diving in the depths with ‘Karma Coma’, their dark, industrial sound reverberates around the countryside in a way that reinforces the group’s legendary status.
From one electronic heavyweight to another, Saturday night’s headliners Chase and Status aren’t to be outdone. Their drum and bass masterclass sets the place alight, putting their performance on another level. ‘Baddadan’ rumbles through the ground, whilst ‘Disconnect’ and ‘Blind Faith’ soar through the night sky. There’s nobody else doing it like them right now; all hail the new kings of Electric Castle.
Sunday continues the victory for dance music, both big and smaller scale. Manchester’s answer to Mike Skinner, Anthony Szmierek’s set is as earnest as it is exceptional. His modest but mighty hip-hop sound lights up the Backyard Stage, winning him a whole host of new fans and placing him firmly in the Rising Star category. Elsewhere, in amongst an amphitheatre of shipping containers, Norwegian DJ extraordinaire Todd Terje blasts nu-disco remixes of classic pop hits, keeping Electric Castle’s 10th birthday party riding high through the night.
Szmierek’s ambient dance and Terje’s retro house music ready the crowd for the weekend’s final Main Stage headliner, Sean Paul. Taking the stage to rapturous applause, Jamaica’s finest dancehall export performs with characteristic energy and crowd-work. His wide array of hits, from ‘Temperature’ and ‘Gimme The Light’ right through to ‘Rockabye’ and ‘Cheap Thrills’, are performed with all the precision you’d expect from someone with twenty years under their belt.
As the black, green, and gold of the Jamaican flag shine out over the joyous Transylvanian audience, it’s clear to see how Electric Castle has reached a decade of festivals. It might not be quite the 10th birthday that they’d planned, but what’s a party without a little drama?