“Cluj-Napoca is a cosmopolitan city with a lot of cultural events, economic opportunities, good universities, active NGOs. But the city also has a ‘dark side’ no one talks about and everyone avoids this subject. The Pata Rât community has little access to education and no access to culture,” the promoter explains, according to TransylvaniaToday.ro.
Vaida introduced the landfill stage in 2017, bringing the total number of stages up to 12. Three of them are located in the city’s central park, which has a capacity of 35,000. Other venues include the Hungarian Opera (882 capacity), the Riverstage (4,000) and /Form Space (700). The Pata Rât stage has space for 3,000 people.
Last year, Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra, Dario Rossi, Taraf de Caliu and Hot Club de Cluj performed on the landfill stage. This year’s Pata Rât line-up hasn’t been announced yet.
The community living at the landfill, surrounded by leftovers and rubbish, in make-shift homes, lives, works, eats and plays at the garbage pit. Their job is to search among leftovers and reuse or sell what they find. Most of them are children with few other options than to start a life begging for money or one of crime.
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