What's on in Cluj-Napoca (Cluj), Romania through the year

Busy — Christmas market, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Christmas market (25 Nov – 5 Jan (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in February.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in March.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in April.

Busy — Cluj Days, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Cluj Days

  20 May – 5 Jun · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  The city's own long weekend: stages in Unirii and Cluj Arena, street food down Eroilor and a student crowd that has not left for the summer yet. Free, and the warm-up for the festival season that follows. Source ↗

Busy — Cluj Days, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Transilvania Film Festival

  5–25 Jun · usuallyBook early

  Ten days of screenings across the cinemas, plus open-air nights in Unirii Square and a strand at Bánffy Castle out at Bonțida. The biggest film festival in Romania, and the one week hotel prices move in June. Source ↗

Still on: Cluj Days (20 May – 5 Jun (usually))

Busy — Electric Castle, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Jazz in the Park

  1–15 Jul · usuallyMajor festival

  A daytime festival in Central Park by the lake, deliberately cheap and family-shaped, with buskers competing on street corners around it. The counterweight to the two arena festivals either side of it. Source ↗

• Festival

  Electric Castle

  10–25 Jul · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  Four days on the grounds of a half-ruined Baroque castle at Bonțida, half an hour north-east of the city. Most people camp; the shuttle back into Cluj at four in the morning is the other option. Source ↗

Busy — UNTOLD, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  UNTOLD

  1–12 Aug · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  Four nights that put a few hundred thousand people into Cluj Arena and Central Park, running to six in the morning. Beds across the city are gone months ahead and priced like a different country; the trams run all night. Source ↗

Busy — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, one of its best months for weather

Nothing new starts in September.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in October.

Busy — Christmas market, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Christmas market

  25 Nov – 5 Jan · usuallyChristmas & New YearCrowded

  Stalls and a rink fill Unirii Square in front of St Michael's from late November into the new year, with kürtőskalács and mulled wine doing most of the trade. It stays a local evening out rather than a coach stop. Source ↗

Busy — Christmas market, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Christmas market (25 Nov – 5 Jan (usually))