- The Hidden Power Play: From Culture to Corporate Control
- Exploiting the Locals: High Prices, Low Gains
- A Festival Built on Public Sacrifice
- Cultural Colonization: Replacing Tradition with Global Commercialism
- Conclusion: A Festival for Whom?
The UNTOLD Festival has long been marketed as a beacon of culture, tourism, and economic growth for Cluj-Napoca.
But behind the dazzling lights and celebrity headlines, there is a harsher truth few are willing to address:
UNTOLD is becoming a machinery of power and profit, built on the backs of the very residents it claims to benefit.
As the festival’s organizers grow richer and expand their empire, Cluj’s local population — especially the poor and middle class — are left grappling with rising prices, urban disruption, and cultural alienation.
1. The Hidden Power Play: From Culture to Corporate Control
What began as a grassroots initiative in 2015 has quietly morphed into a multi-million euro corporate enterprise.
The organizers of UNTOLD have leveraged Cluj-Napoca’s name and infrastructure — largely funded by taxpayers — to build a brand now expanding aggressively into new markets like Bucharest with the Neversea Kapital festival.
Meanwhile, city leaders continue to back UNTOLD, allowing massive public spaces like Central Park to be taken over, roads to be blocked, and services to be overwhelmed — all to serve private commercial interests.
In a city where average monthly wages struggle to reach €1,000, the growing power imbalance is clear:
The few profit. The many pay.
2. Exploiting the Locals: High Prices, Low Gains
Ticket prices for UNTOLD 2025 have soared, with general access starting at 922.20 Lei and VIP packages reaching 1,450.00 Lei. For many locals, these prices are simply out of reach — effectively excluding them from an event held in their own city.
Even worse, during the festival period:
- Rents skyrocket, making it nearly impossible for students and working families to afford temporary housing.
- Restaurant and grocery prices climb, often disproportionately, exploiting the festival-driven demand.
- Small businesses not tied to the event’s sponsorships are pushed aside or see no real benefit.
Residents end up paying more for everything — from daily essentials to rent — while UNTOLD’s organizers and their select partners reap enormous financial rewards.
3. A Festival Built on Public Sacrifice
Each year, Cluj-Napoca’s citizens are asked — or rather forced — to sacrifice:
- Their peace (enduring sleepless nights due to noise)
- Their mobility (navigating blocked roads and overwhelmed transport)
- Their access to public parks and spaces (monopolized by the festival)
These costs are never compensated. Instead, they are framed as a “necessary price” for the supposed benefits of increased tourism and global attention — benefits that remain largely concentrated in the hands of a few elite organizers, not distributed among ordinary citizens.
4. Cultural Colonization: Replacing Tradition with Global Commercialism
In 2025, UNTOLD will feature acts like Post Malone, Martin Garrix, and Swedish House Mafia.
Yet few, if any, Romanian cultural performances or local voices are highlighted.
Cluj’s unique cultural fabric — once vibrant with local traditions, music, and community pride — is being systematically erased in favor of international trends and commercial entertainment.
This is not cultural enrichment.
It is cultural colonization — replacing local identity with a globalized, monetized product.
Source: EDM.com – UNTOLD 2025 Lineup
Conclusion: A Festival for Whom?
UNTOLD may continue to grow its profits, expand into new cities, and dominate the music scene.
But Cluj-Napoca’s citizens — especially its working class and young families — are waking up to a sobering reality:
They are not the beneficiaries of UNTOLD. They are its fuel.
If real change is not demanded — in the form of fairer practices, resident protections, and cultural preservation — the festival’s glittering facade will only mask deeper and deeper scars on the city’s soul.
