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Not a long time ago, I wrote my last post for the FITS 2022 edition which was divided into 6 parts due to the various numbers of representations that I managed to attend and which I thought would fit better in a few separate posts instead of spamming a single one with a bit over 35 representations.

Either way, when I posted my last such article, it happened with just a few days before attending the edition from 2023 which I had a lot of expectations from and which I promised that I'd attend entirely no matter what the weather conditions would be, since these weighted a little bit too much in the edition of 2022 that made me skip a few days and representations that I was looking forward to.

In case you are not familiar with what FITS means, this comes from Sibiu International Theatre Festival which is the largest theatre festival in Romania but also one of the biggest festivals in the country which gathers more and more tourists from all over the world each year. The edition from 2022 had around 100,000 people in a single day, which is a crazy number but yet important information to give an idea of how big the festival is.

I won't take time to write again in detail what FITS actually means because I already wrote about it in my first post which you can check HERE, but long story short, it's not limited to theatre shows only but to a lot more shows held on the street that are open to everyone and always come up as a surprise for many people attending it because you never know what to expect and end up being surprised with each passing day from a total of 10 days which is how much the festival lasts yearly.

An important thing to mention though, is that each year the theme of the festival is different, and the theme for this year was "miracle" which I think is a fairly good word to mark the 30th edition that I can only be proud of for making it so far.

This being said, I'll begin presenting the first 7 shows I attended this year, dividing each show into the basic information about the theme behind the representation but also dedicate a paragraph for a personal opinion because I'd lie saying that all the shows impressed me equally.

1. Mirror your community

Similar to "A Totem to Frumiria" from 2022 that represented one of those installations on the main square of the city that was going to stay there throughout the festival, this year the new such decoration was represented by a huge mirror that was giving a new perspective over the square which is hard to be noticed during the time of the festival.

So sitting in front of a mirror to take a selfie while having a distorted image around you, was considered a great way to discover and rediscover the unique miracle within yourself.

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Considering that the whole installation was proposed and made possible by the official architecture office of the country, I guess it was a pretty important and interesting start to the festival. And to be honest, I really loved it, not just because of the perspective shown while staring at it, but because it became quickly very popular with tourists looking for the best angle to take a picture from, which was a smart way to keep them in a single place for a while.

Duration: 24/7
Premiere date: 23.06.2023
Original name: Mirror your community

2. The Cane and the Dagger (Legacy Project)

Another show that could be found in the previous edition too, was represented by the Legacy Project through various theatre shows held on the streets. Just like last year this was among the least interesting shows I attended not because I am not a fan of theatre because I am, but because there were very few lines presented, the whole show being like in a loop where the same chat and movements happened every few minutes.

While back in 2022 this seemed a bit boring, in 2023 the students from the Legacy project were split into more teams that were carefully arranged along the fortress wall, each showing off details from different famous theatre pieces, remembering those from Shakespeare. But the thing that everything was in a loop, allowed us to walk from one show to another and see them all in action instead of waiting around 30-45 minutes for each show to come up on the ~~stage~~ street, as it happened last year. So a big thumbs up for this.

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The show we attended and enjoyed the most was The Cane and the Dagger which had as the main characters two ladies that set a trap for a man who was going to court the women but ended up being beaten by the two with a really strong cane. I guess a fairly easy way to mix both drama and comedy in a single place, just like life usually is for each of us.

Duration: 30 min
Premiere date: 24.03.2023
Original name: Ciomagul și Pumnalul

3. Military Music of the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

While this show might be a bit common for the locals since there are more periods of the year when they can listen to Military Music, one unique demonstration of the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu is never missing from any of the FITS editions.

Most of the shows, if not all of them, have more representations divided into more periods of the day or during the whole festival, but the one from the Land Forces Academy has a unique representation which usually happens on the first day of the festival, so in case you don't want to miss it, you have to make it in time as we did. No need to say that we enjoyed it with lots of goosebumps and shivers going down the spine. Yet a feeling that perhaps can't be entirely felt by all the watchers, but still an interesting show that deserves its audience.

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The Military Music of the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu is the official instrumental band specialized in the performance of military honors and ceremonies, activities of military nature, and supporting shows and concerts in Sibiu and both nationally and internationally.

Duration: 15 min
Premiere date: 23.06.2023
Original name: Muzica Militară a Academiei Forțelor Terestre Sibiu

4. The Equestrian Parade

Despite the thing that seeing such a large and imposing marionette that exceeded a lot the natural size of a horse, the story behind this show was a lot deeper than walking through the crowd.

First, we are talking about a 'toy' that was created in a smart way to copy as closely and naturally as possible the movements of a horse while walking, running, or getting scared by different things. All these actions were controlled manually by the rider from the images but also by the two guys from behind who pushed the marionette and who seemed like getting the least attention even if they were making the biggest efforts to make the whole show possible.

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Even if the name of the show has nothing to do with the story behind it, it represents a different kind of definition for what actually means to tame a horse and all the phases this one has to go through starting with the first interaction with the dancer who tries approaching the horse and meeting him, then slowly building up a relationship of trust before proceeding further and making him become part of the family.

What I loved the most about this show, was how hard it turned out to anticipate the next move as the horse was suddenly running through the crowd simulating the fear, randomly starting to eat from a tree, as well as trying to hide or interact with the audience in many forms, which brought a new level of authenticity to the whole story presented.

Duration: 45 min
Premiere date: 20.06.2021
Original name: Chevâl

5. The Bubble Dreamer

Just like in any edition of FITS there are also these kinds of shows that at first might seem a bit childish or just more dedicated to kids, but while these can enjoy specific activities entirely reserved for them, The Bubble Dreamer was a good lesson for many of us who forgot way too soon about the importance of keeping the inner kid alive.

This time the story behind the representation was based on a fictional character whose name was Icaro and who played the role of a romantic dreamer who managed to bring a lot of joy and happiness on the audience's faces through the magical simplicity of soap bubbles.

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Being a fan of soap bubbles since I was a kid and actually having a toy that helped me build up a colorful world from time to time, I really had a good time watching this show, especially since everything was taken to the next level being presented more than one thousand of bubbles each of different sizes, shapes, and composition, remembering those made out of smoke or fire that caught a lot of attention from everyone.

Duration: 30 min
Premiere date: 30.11.2017
Original name: Il Sognatore di Bolle

6. The Musical Acrobatics

As the sun was slowly retiring in glory, there was no better moment than attending the first musical show of the festival which came with a lot of humor, happy faces, acrobatics, and good songs.

The five people present both on the stage and in the crowd are known as Asphalt and they are quite famous for having concerts in more than 25 countries from three different continents, so perhaps some of you might recognize their faces. But all these aspects didn't contribute in a negative way making them less dedicated to their job but actually improved their talents of creating their own music and sharing it further while doing acrobatics, playing with fire, interacting with the audience, and many more.

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The conclusion behind the musical show was to present how easy it is to be happy and to build your own world, the five calling themselves locals of a fictive country (Chorbastan) where being dumb is normal as long as it has some limits. And I would lie by saying that I didn't have a lot of fun with this representation as each person of the band had his own role and charm that made me smile every single minute while watching their show.

Duration: 60 min
Premiere date: 26.02.2023
Original name: Exodus

7. Together

Before the day came to an end and we could call it a successful start for the 30th edition of FITS, the guys from ConTakt resumed to silence the whole audience which is something that hardly happens having all categories of people and of all ages in the crowd, but that's the best proof that we are talking about a great show where you barely remember to breath and take a picture as a memory while watching the representation.

The show had the contemporary circus tag but I'd say that it's a lot more than that as it involved freestyle representations of music, movements, and interactions with the audience while exploring together both highs and lows which are always easier to be passed when having people by your side.

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The red cable seen in the last picture played a major role while creating chaos, entanglement, and sometimes unifying the group but the cherry on top of the cake was represented by all the surprises shared through different worlds and themes of vulnerability, trust, light-heartedness, and playful silliness that we all face in our lives more or less. And no doubt I felt blessed to attend this unique show held in Romania.

Duration: 50 min
Premiere date: 25.05.2022
Original name: Foley

This is the first part of FITS 2023 and also what I managed to attend on the first day out of the ten the festival comes with, so I think at the end of the day I can call myself a winner exploring so much diversity in just a couple of hours which I can only hope many of you will feel one day for the sake of tasting the actual feeling of being part of such a grandiose festival.

FITS 2023 posts:

FITS 2023 - Part 1

FITS 2022 posts:

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additonally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (260+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 550+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

~ @GabrielaTravels ~