Summer Nights at the Museum Festival, 2nd edition

Data : August 18 2023 - August 20 2023

The first festival of the youngest museum in Timisoara, Summer Nights at the Museum, comes back with its second edition, from August 18th to August 20th 2023,  offering a diverse cultural programme for all ages. The Water Museum awaits its visitors with live music sessions, reading nights, literature, a circus performance, photo exhibition, guided tours and numerous creative and educational workshops.  

Two unique photography exhibition, hosted in the welcoming pavilion of the Water Museum , were opened in the first night of the festival, on August 18th, at 7pm. A selection of meaningful images presented by the global exhibition I Remember Water, organized by the Water Museums Global Network UNESCO (WAMU-Net), to which the company Aquatim, the administrator of Timisoara Water Museum, is an affiliate member, and by the exhibition Unseen creatures, presenting microscopic images taken during the expedition Sail Europe Around 2023 - Circumeuropa (SEA 2023), which takes the cultural capital around Europe. The WAMU-Net exhibition curators invite us to recall water through the memories and emotions of people from around the globe, and to reflect on pathways that can help us shape our water futures, while the scientific team from SEA 2023 opens for us a window to the wonderful underwater world.

Friday evening is reserved to the extraordinary show put together by the Firescu family, offered by Școala de Circ, open for all ages. sing acrobatics, balance and circus arts, the performers will inspire the viewers to rediscover and to explore their creativity. And for more inspiration, the evening went on with storytelling sessions performed by writers Adina Ștefănescu, Lucian Ionică, Tudor Crețu and Cosmin Leucuța, and the musicians Mihaela Faur (harp) and Marta Chiș (violin).

On Saturday evening, Sonoterra Ensemble, gathered by multi-instrumentalist Cătălin Milea, will take the audience on multiple continents, creating a space for an epic musical experience. Also on the agenda,  Aurora Suite, a creation closely related to water, dedicated to life and feminine energy. 

Film projections are planned for each day of the festival, including the documentaries Timișoara. The Secret Map: People and Places (2022) which explore the forgotten or unknown stories and places of the city, including the famous UFO from Urseni and the coverage SEA 2023 – Circumeuropa on the river-sea expedition which departs from the heart of the city of Timisoara and makes stops in over 20 former and current European capitals of culture.

The workshops and practical activities offered by the festival include clay modelling and printing, initiation in circus arts, reading sessions for children, illustration, unique techniques for collective painting, fishing, sports, waste oil recycling, floriculture, biology and microscopic study, eco-friendly tote decoration, experimental tests on drinking water quality.  Free of charge. 

We could not have left out guided tours from the festival agenda, as one of the main attractions of the Water Museum.  Visitors interested in diving deeper into the historical buildings of the former water plant of Timisoara have the possibility to take part in one of the six guided tours, made available by the organizers.

Summer Nights at the Museum brings people once more closer to heritage, arts and nature. Whether inside the spectacular historical buildings of the former water treatment plant or outside, in the shades of tall plane trees in the museum park,   we can all (re)connect with our local history and identity, through cultural experience where miraculous water is omnipresent. 

Full agenda of the festival is available on the Facebook event page and on Aquatim’s website. 

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The Water Museum – connection to the cultural network of Timisoara is part of the National Cultural Programme “Timisoara – 2023 European Capital of Culture”; it is financed by Grow Timisoara 2023 and implemented by the Center for Projects Timisoara, with allocation from the national budget via the Ministry of Culture.