Golden Stag: Gigliola Cinquetti opens anniversary edition

The 18th edition of the Golden Stag festival debuted Wednesday night, in Brasov, 50 years since the first show of the event, with a Gala dedicated to the Stag's winners.

Huge screens were placed on an impressive stage, where they played, in an emotional debut, the first notes of the Golden Stag's anthem of 1968, when the RadioTelevision's Orchestra, led by Sile Dinicu, accompanied the first artists that participated in the festival.

As a matter of fact, the opening show in Brasov Historical Center brought to the audience well beyond their teenage years the joy of seeing again artists that marked the Golden Stag stage and the emotion of the remembrance of those who went down in the Festival's history.

The event was opened by presenters Aurelian Temisan and Ilinca Avram, who invited the audience to take part in a "Western-like, super-festival."

Italian artist Gigliola Cinquetti, winner of the Grand Prize of Eurovision Song Contest 1964 and invited at the Golden Stag's second edition in 1969 opened the Festival's recital night.

The audience then met once again with the Romanian artists that made history at the Golden Stag - Luminita Dobrescu, the first Romanian artists who won the Grand Trophy of the Golden Stag, Paula Seling, Monica Anghel, Corina Chiriac, Silvia Dumitrescu, Laurentiu Cazan, Nico, Doru Tufis, Proconsul, Ovi, Luminita Anghel, Narcisa Suciu, Razvan Krivach.

One of the special moments of the show was offered by Portuguese artists Paulo Braganca, who offered the audience an unforgettable moment through interpreting some songs from Maria Tanase's repertoire, in the unique key of fado music.

On the inaugural night, Romania's representatives to the most recent Eurovision edition, The Humans, sang together two freshly recorded songs in the studio, and Andra held an extraordinary performance.

During the commercial breaks were shown fragments of the film documentary dedicated to the Centennial year - "The Greater Union - Romania, 100 years on", produced by AGERPRES - media partner in the event.

The event takes place from August 29 - September 2, in Brasov's Piata Sfatului, in the year of Romania's Centennial and the Golden Stag's semi-centennial, the festival having a special format this year, with an anniversary gala, two days of contest, a Festival Gala, a Romania Centennial show and related events.

The stage of the anniversary edition is a first for Brasov. Artists will go on the same stage where Metallica, Iron Maiden, Dua Lipa, Maluma, Prodigy, Martin Garrix, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave or Kings of Leon also performed. Though its figures, the structure is impressive: a surface of 800 meters, and 50,000 components were brought in 12 trucks, weighing 20 tons each. The stage has approximately 250 tons, without equipment, and 18 meters high, surpassing a four-story building, and the ceiling can support 60 tons, three times more than a regular aluminum stage.

A curved LED screen, powered by 12 engines, masks the festival's orchestra, depending on the scenic moment, and the sound installation has a power handling of 100,000 watts.

The festival takes place in a 9,000 square meters perimeter, in the historic scenery of Brasov's Piata Sfatului. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei editor: Mihai Simionescu EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Simona Iacob)