Cluj Napoca, September 19
Over 120 hours of fun but also an excellent opportunity for 289,000 participants to prove that a festival can be experienced in a sustainable way: the 2025 edition of Electric Castle managed to surpass new thresholds in the organizers’ objectives of creating an event that respects the environment. A 10% increase in participants who opted for trains and buses and 9 tons of plastic saved through the use of recyclable cups are just a few of the eco indicators recorded at the 11th edition of the festival.
Electric Castle is known for the power of its fan community to create unique moments together. When these also have a reduced impact on the environment, they are all the more special. At the July 2025 edition, 46,000 participants chose to give up the car and arrive at the Banffy domain with trains and buses provided by the organizers, a 10% increase compared to the previous year. Over 6,000 cars arrived in EC parking lots with all seats occupied, a sign that the carpooling system with free access and the prizes offered by OMV, the project’s partner, are attracting more and more attention to this way of reducing the number of cars traveling to and from the festival. The cars used for transporting the artists at Electric Castle were 70% electric, with the organizers’ ambition being to create an exclusively electric or hybrid fleet for next year’s edition.
Water fountains with free drinking water and the use of reusable plastic cups reduced the amount of PET bottles at the festival by up to 9 tons, with another 150,000 plastic bottles recycled through the ReturRO system. The direct impact: the total amount of waste collected at this year’s edition was 15 tons lower than in 2024. The selective collection system and the team of “cleaning heroes” coordinated by Lidl Romania had a major contribution to this success.
An initiative tested for the second consecutive year, the separate collection of cigarette butts, is gaining popularity among participants. The 50,000 butts placed in special containers make the organizers’ work much easier in restoring the 12 hectares of grass that are replanted after each edition. In the long term, the festival intends to direct this waste towards pallet production, but a larger quantity is needed for specialized factories to be involved.
The “Respiră Verde” Association handled the collection of 1.5 tons of used cooking oil from festival vendors, all of which will be transformed into candles by the protected unit OilRight.
Banffy Castle receives support in its restoration process through the €40,000 donation made by Lidl Romania for the works, marking the 7th consecutive year in which the company is involved in this endeavor.
The increase of power supply from the grid, limiting the use of Stage-V generators, even if they are state-of-the-art, using only timed showers for lower consumption of up to 3 million liters of water, reusing 10 tons of materials through reintegration of urban furniture and promotional supports from previous editions are other initiatives that, in the long run, contribute to reducing the environmental impact.
