With a community freshly created, and yet a place that makes us feel safe we are posting in the right community this kind of posts, it was about time to write my first festival experience for the community since I've wasted enough occasions trying to promote festivals held in town but which failed terribly not being able to reach the right audience.
So while I have plenty of folders with images taken from various festivals attended both this year and in 2022, I thought that would be nice to begin my contribution here with the newest one, which was in the past weekend when I attended the "El Zorab" Horse Festival.
I am confident that perhaps you already figured out what the festival is about from both the official banner and the name of the event, but while some people on the globe are very familiar with horses talking about states out there where seeing police riding horses on at work is not a strange thing, this kind of activities are not so popular in Romania.
Of course, there are a lot of people on the countryside who use horses for their day-by-day field work or for simply traveling from one point on the map to a different one, but when it comes to horse riding places and sports in general, things are a lot different.
Personally, I always wanted to try riding a horse just because I love animals and I appreciate each activity that makes me get closer to them in one way or another, but never managed to do it by now, nor thought about trying this sport since in my youth I don't think it even existed. So hearing about the "El Zorab" Horse Festival came in the best moment, making me do my best to reach the place where it was going to be held even though it was pretty far from the place where I was living.
Actually, I first heard of this festival last year but didn't manage to reach it, so I did keep in mind its name with the hope that in 2023 I'll make it. And I did!
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The festival was held at the Zorabia Equestrian Center located in a commune that is recognized as being part of Sibiu in one way or another being pretty developed from all points of view, but which is still challenging to reach by the ones who don't have a car because the bus stations are not even close to the location where the festival was held and renting a Bolt driver as we did might turn into a trap without even realizing. But more about that later.
So, for the way to go, we opted for the Bolt driver who charged us only about 5-6 Euros for a ride that was almost 9 km long, and he brought us exactly where we asked even if some part of the road wasn't paved because the equestrian center is placed on a hill above the town.
Right from the entrance, we met some of the many horses that we were going to caress, feed, or see in action, talking about four mares with their foals. This place was quite popular with kids that perhaps was the first time they touched a horse so I could understand their excitement, but what I liked was the patience of the animals and how friendly they were with all the people they saw for the first time in their lives.
Fairly close to this first enclosure there was arranged a kids' area with some inflatable slides, workshops of painting, but also some improvised surfaces for playing badminton.
Still at this part of the equestrian center could be found the food trucks from where you could purchase a drink or something to eat, but also one of the best spots from where to admire the town, Sibiu.
Unfortunately, we attended the festival on its last day so most of the food trucks were already gone and that's why I didn't make my way to that direction any closer to take pictures because there wasn't much to see anymore.
The next region we explored was the first arena where we also saw some action in terms of riding a horse, the first such competition sample being of how well people can lead horses through the obstacles, everything being carefully watched by an international jury who also offered rewards at the end of the day.
While the jury did their job very well, I was impressed to see that most of the competitors were kids on a fairly fragile age, which made me surprised by how well they were riding and controlling the horses which are not some tiny and lovely animals to play with because they do grow up quite big and have different behaviors that could become challenging even for adults and professionals.
Another thing that I liked was how beautiful each horse was, each coming with a unique aspect, from a braided mane to accessories for the head and legs, and more.
The first competition sample had quite a lot of participants and the moment when another representation was starting was going to take a while, so we decided to explore the surroundings and see a bit more of what Zorabia has to offer since it's not a place that we can reach every day.
That's how we found a lot more horses whether they were locked in some temporary enclosers, horse stalls, or simply walked around by their owners.
There was even organized a parking lot dedicated to carriages but where we've only found one. Would be lovely to see this event become larger in a few years and walk in time through a bunch of carriages that I've always found very interesting and classy at the same time. Or who knows? Maybe there will be organized even a carriage festival one day!
The next competition sample that took part in the same arena presented before, was that of speed, where we also got to see some professionals riding the horses and not just kids who were doing a great job anyway. They had to follow a specific route through the obstacles and the one who was completing the sample in the quickest time, was considered the winner of that round.
However, from what I understood some of the contestants got their horses replaced with different ones for some reason which definitely brought them a disadvantage in front of the others, but there were no incidents which I think is what matters the most in these moments.
After attending one more sample of the festival, we made it to the barns to see some more horses in their natural habitat. Over here we've seen everything from loving owners to passionate tourists, from people feeding the horses with their own hands without having any fear to those horses that seemed a bit more dangerous with lots of fences blocking their connection with those passing by.
We've also seen a family of horses living in a single box, but also horses that even if they were separated by different boxes they were still eating from the same bunch of grass or touching each other with their heads. Some of these even had their names written on the boxes while some had a fairly large informative panel announcing that the horse can become agitated around people and act unusual.
But just as I mentioned before, it's a normal thing to see animals with all kinds of behaviors just as it happens with people, and there is no reason to judge them for that because we all have our own feelings, emotions, and moods and that can be explained fairly well through our actions.
After receiving some extra energy for the rest of the day by exploring the barns which represented one of the best parts of the festival for me, we made it to a new arena where it was about to start the parade of the horses that I was personally looking forward to see.
There wasn't a proper parade, or not what I expected at least, because I thought there was going to be a bunch of people each riding their horse and walking in front of the people, but it turned into a single man who was going to the barns and back to the arena after picking a different horse each time that was presented to the audience.
No doubt this turned into an exhausting activity for the man who was doing alone all the efforts, without much help from the others to at least bring the horses to the arena dedicated to the so-called parade, but he did a great job showing many horse breeds with Arabian blood that looked absolutely stunning.
I felt sad noticing that most of these were marked with a fairly big burn on their skin with either a number or a letter which seemed unnecessary for us who don't have much knowledge on this field, but which perhaps represents a normal thing in this world and it does have a purpose too. But I still consider that being in 2023 is a pretty good excuse to find some less painful methods of marking horses rather than burning them on skin which could be understandable in the 18th or 19th century when the evolution of the world was still far.
Unfortunately, the lack of professionalism and the time wasted between each horse presentation to walk the animal back to the barn and return with a new one, made us not stay until the end of the parade because it was very hard to endure the heat from the outside on a show that was constantly interrupted due to the lack of people to handle it as it should, so we made our way to a new arena which was going to host the next round of the competition but which was going to happen after two hours.
Two hours of constant wait under the powerful rays of the sun with no place to hide from the heat which was already burning our skin after many hours spent at the festival, and with zero interest in informing the audience what was coming up next.
That was also the moment when I made a proper conclusion about the festival even though it was my first time attending it. But even before making our way to it, we did notice that the schedule shared either on the news or social media pages was always different from what was shared a few hours before, which we also felt on our skin when we made it to the festival and noticed that there was literally no one knowing what it coming up next, on which arena, and the moment when it should start.
I even noticed some conversations between the contestants that had no clue what their next sample was going to be and when it should start which is unacceptable. While I can understand in one way or another the lack of interest in informing the audience while there were a lot of aspects that needed to be taken care of in a short time (even if it's not an excuse), it makes zero sense not to have a stable schedule at least for the contestants that took care of the audience' fun more than the organizers. It just shows a lot of disrespect coming from the organizers and a lack of care for how well they will move forward with this festival in the following years.
Along with the bad aspects of the festival that I noticed during my stay there was also a single introducer who was taking part in all competition samples which was constantly missing the names of the contestants, not presenting some of them, or giving fake information about what is the next arena that was going to shelter the next activity.
The prices of everything sold at the festival were also crazy. I am aware that is impossible to pay for a drink or meal what you pay normally but ending up paying 10 times its value was ridiculous since this is not happening even on the largest festivals in Romania which are already at their 20+ edition.
Anyway, while writing down these rows now feels a lot easier since I know how much time actually took between the rounds, back then it didn't feel that way as we were constantly under the question mark without knowing what was coming up next and when it begins, nor had people to ask for this information because no one knew, which gave me a bitter taste making me think twice if I would attend "El Zorab" Horse Festival again. But we kept our patience until we saw one more sample that I was really interested in.
The next sample we attended and I really wanted to see it in real life because I only noticed it in front of a TV, was that of jumping over obstacles which always seemed fascinating to me for some reason.
Unfortunately, the bad parts of the festival didn't stop as some of the speakers were placed right next to the fences that the horses had to jump over which caused a real disaster for some of the contestants whose horses simply refused to do the tasks causing them to give up on the competition, or even made the horses act weird, like running uncontrollable or jumping around to take the owner out of the seat.
We ended up seeing just five of the contestants here and walked away refusing to see an injury happening and also because 6 hours already passed since we were at the festival and we didn't get to see much in this period because more than half of the time was not happening anything so we were on our own finding activities to make the time pass faster due to the organizers who never mentioned when the next sample is going to start or how much the 'pause' was going to last.
When the introducer noticed people making their way to the exit, the single excuse he could mention was that the horses need their joints heated very well before a competition sample and that's why it takes so long to begin. But it was too late because people were already leaving and if they really cared to keep their audience they could mention these aspects from the beginning and remind people that they have at least one hour of break after each round to spend as they wish until the next activity.
Before leaving the equestrian center I saw this board which reminded me that I was here mainly for three stages of the festival: the parade - which wasn't a proper parade, the sample jumping over the obstacles - which turned into chaos and risk for both the contestants and the audience and the horseback archery that seemed like the next sample - but which I gave up on after getting drained of energy by a festival that is far from getting close to being considered professional.
There were actually showcased a lot more activities and demonstrations that should have happened by 3 PM but when we left was already nearly 5 PM and not even half of these were shown, so another minus goes for that.
And I do feel sad writing my first post in the Festival Mania community like this which seems rather as a frustration than an experience, but what I'm trying to share is that no matter how interesting and nice a festival is, all its potential can be cut down from the roots by a bad organizer who doesn't emphasize on a lot of important things that could make the event become successful.
This was the 4th edition of the "El Zorab" Horse Festival which should represent a fairly decent amount of time that passed and from which the organizers should already have learned how to improve the show, but for me, it didn't seem like they were on the right path even though I would have loved to return here with each of the upcoming editions.
And just when we thought that we already had enough for the day, we were challenged one last time when 6 Bolt drivers canceled our rides on the last hundreds of meters without any explanation which made us realize we had to walk all the way back in town from where we could take the bus home because there was no one coming to pick us up even though many drivers accepted our ride request but then canceled for no reason.
We had to walk around 3 km on the street until we reached the industrial part of the town and found a driver who took us home, but it really made us feel that day like an adventure from many points of view, so the single way you could reach both the festival and the equestrian center is by driving your own car as there are no other options to feel safe since you might end up just like us.
But even if this was one of my worst experiences attending a festival, I'm used to taking with me only the good parts of everything so I still consider that the festival has a lot of potential and that the single fault is of those who organized it. The place itself is a nice location where you can enjoy horse riding or simply go to feel like having the town on your feet because the view up from the hill is stunning.
The event we attended can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/events/310980194847203
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.
