Transylvanian Music Festival Channels Dracula By Selling Tickets For Blood

Music fans often find that music festivals bleed them dry but not as literally as Untold Festival in northern Romania.

The first-time festival is offering discounts and free tickets to fans who donate blood in a one-two punch of PR gold and replenishing the country’s poorly-stocked blood banks.

Untold festival is offering a 30% discount to anyone who donates blood at one of Romania’s 42 blood centres until July 24, as well as free one-day festival tickets to anyone who gives blood at a mobile unit in Bucharest or at the blood transfusion centre in Cluj-Napoca, where the festival takes place from July 30 to August 2.

Pay With Blood has already proven popular with hard-up music fans who don’t seem phased by the vampiric nature of the scheme - in fact, the whole thing was inspired by the legend of the blood-drinking Dracula who famously (albeit fictionally) lived in the region.

“Given that Romania faces an acute blood shortage in medical facilities, a campaign that takes inspiration from these myths in order to draw attention to a real problem is more than welcome,” the festival’s director general, Bogdan Buta, told The Guardian.

In exchange for their blood, festival goers will get to party like it’s 2001 to a line-up featuring the Wu-Tang Clan, David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren and Tinie Tempah.