Reflecting on 2023: A Year of Growth and Achievements

Dear friends,

It has been our busiest year.

Mumush festival is our greatest event each year, but our community puts in hard work all year long that goes way beyond that. From building, gardening, stage design, workshops, camps, parties to projects and collaborations of all kinds.

These are all equally important to us.

Winter is here again, and as we begin a new journey with our ever-growing community, we want to take a moment to look back on what we have accomplished in 2023.

Our work began right after the year kicked off in January.

The Booking Team was busy drafting contracts and deals with artists and agencies. The Brand Team was coming up with and discussing ideas for content throughout the year.

Meetings were held in every department, specific goals were set. One example is that we decided we wanted to feed everyone at the festival, so the Construction Team and Hospitality Team started working together to design and build a brand-new kitchen.

In February we organized the Kid’s Camp Winter Edition in collaboration with Social Fiber Association, where we invited children from nearby orphanages among others. The aim of the camp was to teach kids between the ages of 6 and 11 how to cooperate in a team and what it’s like to live close to nature.

March was when we started preparing for the festival on a full scale with regular meetings and building projects kicking off. We also held a belated Carnival Party with funky costumes invoking the magical creatures of the forest and an unforgettable, enormous bonfire.

We built our first greenhouse in the Environment Building Camp in April. Fresh vegetables like tomato, paprika, onion, kohlrabi, basil, mint became available for cooking all year long.

The Deco Team renovated their storage space transforming it into a proper workshop area.

At the end of the month we were invited to one of Radiozora’s broadcasts, where we had the opportunity to talk about our work and goals. Two DJs from our crew, Vekt and Fekete Péter played a set on the broadcast (Watch on YouTube here).

Meanwhile, we became part of the online community of workaway.info. From late Spring until August, we welcomed 5 people in our HQ in Adrianu Mic to assist in day-to-day work: cleaning, gardening, cooking.

We collaborated with our good friend Atelier from Cluj with lights, deco and stage design at three events in May and June.

At the end of June we took stage design, lights and visuals along with our friend, Kannonaudio sound system to Kolorádó festival in Hungary.

At the end of August, we assisted Inota festival with smaller repairs, lights installations in the chill zone, and we also showed our proficiency with serving food for the festival participants in our kitchen.

We were present as organizers in mid-September at Goulash Disko festival in Vis, Croatia.

From the second half of June until mid-August we had four building camps as part of the preparation for the festival: construction, decoration, electric & light design and the final one with all in, just before the festival. Each camp lasted about a week, and in addition to all being fun, they offered anyone who joined an excellent opportunity to learn new things, practice their skills and be part of creating a festival.

We built new toilets, kitchen furniture and a new Info Point where people could purchase merchandise and get information.

The Deco Team was busy recycling all decorations from last year, giving them a new aesthetic purpose.

Our Construction Team built a new water pipeline system which runs underground in the fields and supplies multiple drinking points in the festival area. 2023 was the first year when the logistical problems at the kitchen and the bar ceased to exist.

Driven by the initial idea to have live music during the day near the kitchen, we came up with a new stage in addition to Gargantua and Arboretum: Ambrosia. This is where people could enjoy a tasty pizza and home cooked meals made by our staff and listen to local, upcoming artists’ DJ sets.

In 2023 we were part of the Most Music program, which aims to connect the music scene in the Balkans. We had the opportunity to build new relationships in the music industry. Thanks to this we could meet amazing artists like Etceteral from Slovenia who held a concert in the last evening of the festival at Gargantua stage.

Feeling accomplished, with a looot of work behind us, we launched Mumush 4.0 with a party in October hosted by our dear friend, Atelier in Cluj-Napoca, where anyone had the opportunity to purchase early bird tickets for the festival.

This year 275 people contributed to making Mumush 3.0 happen. Among them were volunteers, cooks, bartenders, drivers, healers, massage therapists, painters, carpenters, plumbers, medics, sound techs, visual artists, DJs and artists, crew members and crew pets and many others.

With incredible effort, they poured gallons of their love and energy into this amazing, beautiful thing that is not just a festival but also, metaphorically as well as literally for some, our Home.

So, shout out to everyone involved! You are MUCH appreciated.

Happy New Year to all!

See you in 2024.

article by balázs, juli

edited by benji