Concerts to Some, Miracles to Others

There is no doubt that the 90’s brought a lot of changes for Romania. There were a lot of new things people here had to get accustomed to. But, at the same time, there was this incredible hunger for all these things they had missed out on, a longing to make up for all the lost time. They had survived communism by resorting to culture, by reading and listening to music. Now one of the things they wished for was a chance to watch their favorite artist performing live.

Think about it. During the communist regime, there were not a lot of things Romanian people were allowed to do. Even hobbies were restricted. Anything that could help expand the lengths people’s minds could go to was considered dangerous. People were always kept busy: they only had Sunday off from work, but even then they were called in for “patriotic duty”. The intellectuals were the most dangerous. Their bodies obeyed the regime as they had no alternative, but their minds never surrendered. That’s the one place communists could not get into. And this place was filled with music, books, art and debates with the other people alike. It was very difficult to obtain a book or a music tape. One not praising Ceausescu or the communists, that is. But people always found a way to get a hold of them. After all, it was their only weapon.

This is the context Romania found itself in when the 1989 revolution brought the change that some of its people had been expecting for years. When the regime ended, Romanians were introduced to a world they had never known before. Commercials, foreign products, investments were just a few of these “miracles”. It was a people that had broken loose and was earning to enjoy the benefits of its new found freedom.

Most of them had long stopped hoping that they could ever have the chance to go to a concert and watch their favorite artist perform live. Maybe they had never even dared hoping for something like that. They were happy just listening to their overused tape that they had fought so hard to get. But soon they were blown away for the first time: it was the Michael Jackson concert in 1992 that first left the Romanian audience speechless long after the concert had ended. I was only 10 back then, but I can still remember what I was wearing that day.

The 90s also brought unforgettable events like the Prodigy and the Metallica concerts, which caused a real frenzy among the audience at the time. Back then it was almost impossible for people to believe their favorite artists stood before their eyes, so they could not even dare to imagine that they would ever get the chance to see them again.

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