1200+ guitarists jammed in Sibiu during Guitar Meeting Festival 2025

This past weekend (5-7 Sep 2025) we, the JamChallenged crew, joined the Guitar Meeting Festival in Sibiu - Romania's biggest guitarists gathering.

We’ve joined several past editions, but this one felt truly special. Most likely because I joined with the goal of meeting fellow guitarists and spreading the word about JamChallenged.

However, I failed to only focus on this part as I've enjoyed every second of the festival.

Day 1 - Friday - Concerts and jam sessions

I started by joining the Ozzy Tribute event in the city center, where some brave participants got to play guitar, drums and sing in front of a large crowd. Then, they continued with a small rehearsal for the manifest concert which was scheduled for Saturday. Even with just a small group of players, the energy was fantastic.

We then moved to Astra Museum, the biggest open air museum in Europe where the festival took place.

The evening brought powerful concerts from Revolter, Trooper, and Cargo — each delivering an amazing show..

In between concerts, I managed to chat with several fellow guitarists and find out more about how others approach learning songs and technique.

There were also several spots set up where people could get to play various instruments, from electrical drums, guitars to singing.

A mini stage hosted open jam sessions with drums, bass, guitar, and vocals — and musicians jumped in to play everything from folk to rock and metal in various skill levels - just like we do on JamChallenged (beginner, intermediate, advanced). It was amazing to see people of all ages connecting through music.

We left around midnight with an awesome feeling!

Day 2 - Saturday - Manifest concert with 1200+ guitarists, more concerts, more jam sessions and one challenge

The next day, we left home early and went to the city center where guitar clubs from around the country gathered up and held a small concert. Each club had a slot to showcase the songs they learned to the public delight.

I spoke with a few club leaders about JamChallenged — they loved the idea, and I hope we’ll see them in upcoming challenges.

At around 1PM we were back to the Astra Museum. I was blown away by the many activities available there: guitar workshops, guitar+drums showcase with the possibility to play the instruments, the jam session stage which rocked all day, discussions on various talks with celebrities, pottery workshops, movie projections, arts and crafts workshops, food and drinks, it was crazy!

I've noticed a young lady playing violin at one of the arts and crafts workshops. She was creating a "live backing track" on violin so that the curious kids there could join in with some improvised instruments.

I really appreciated what she was doing and she was playing violin beautifully (Iringo, if you read this, chapeau, keep inspiring people to get into music! I hope you'll extend your talent in online by creating or joining challenges with us. You have my full support, just contact me).

Managed to connect with other musicians and also got to hear them play live. I was impressed on the skill some of them had, at such an early age! Have to admit that I got a little jealous :) and all those videos of insanely talented asian kids killing it on their instrument (guitar, bass, drums, you name it) came back fast in my mind. But, in the end, I appreciated them more and started to think about squeezing some more practice time for myself as well.

Then the Manifest concert started. OMG, it was madness! Somehow, this Guitar Meeting Festival Sibiu gets better and better each year.

During this 11th edition, over 1200 guitarists (yup, not a typo, ONE THOUSAND AND TWO HUNDRED guitarists) joined the common stage for the manifest concert where they played in unison popular songs from local bands together with the actual bands, as well as some classic covers. The atmosphere was magical in general, but it peaked during the manifest concert from my perspective.

There was also a proper Ozzy Tribute, which felt just right, complementing very well our #OzzyChallenge we started a while back, immediately after the Back to the Beginning concert.

Seeing so many people, different ages (even kids), passionately playing their guitar is something I don't get to see that often and I really appreciated it.

The concerts continued: Mircea Vintila, Radu Almasan (Bosquito), Antract and finally, Vama. For the general public, the peak was reached with Vama, where the band leader and singer made an incredible gesture, which I really appreciated: during the last song, he invited on stage, some of the guitarists, mostly kids and sang with them. It was so awesome! It totally made their day and created wonderful memory they will most likely cherish for all their lives. Tudor, respect for your gesture for these young guitarists.

After Vama, the party continued with rock DJ  and Crocodile Paradox for everyone's delight.

Day 3 - Sunday - Technical workshop + more jam sessions

Sunday kicked off with a technical workshop. At noon I was back to Astra Museum for a workshop explaining how to properly record a demo. The workshop was held by some very nice and knowledgeable guys at Mellowdy Studios, Thomas and Radu.

To my surprise/shame, I had no idea we had a recording studio at this high quality so near by (in Cisnadie). I was impressed.

They brought some (expensive) gear and explained to us how to proper record musical instruments (electro-acoustic guitar in this case) and voice.

They ran 2 demos and walked us through all the steps and answering all our questions (including my stupid ones).

Learned a thing or two. For example, that a DI would most likely provide a better quality recording (which kind of suck lately with Win11).

I thought that having an interface was enough... far from it. This DI box converts the instrument's unbalanced, high-impedance signal into a balanced, low-impedance, microphone-level signal, which is ideal for long cable runs, reducing noise, and ensuring a clean, optimal connection to audio systems.

Also DI does not stand for Digital Interface, but a Direct Injection/Input. Got some more recommendations to use Luna software and maybe switch from Windows to Mac for music recording. Met some new people at the workshop and reconnected with others I've previously met at the Sneak Peek in July or almost met (long story).

Overall, it was very nice. Well done everyone! I've just realized that I was so into the workshop, that I forgot to take any pictures :|. Sunday had a more relaxed vibe, but I still got to talk with lots of guitarists, share opinions and exchange some contacts. I might have found a practice mate (looking at you TheTalkingOnion :)). Later more concerts resumed: Fara Zahar and Mircea Baniciu which were both great.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers! You are doing an AMAZING job! Congrats and keep it up with these kind of festivals! I loved every second of this festival and I left home very tired, but extremely happy.

The good part is that the good mood persisted, despite being a Monday and getting back to work.

Guitar Meeting Festival Sibiu conclusion

Loved the whole energy of the Guitar Meeting Festival in Sibiu, especially the jam sessions. I am very happy that we managed to talk with some of you. I truly appreciated your openness towards JamChallenged — and I hope the cookies and picks brought a smile.

Unfortunately, the slow internet connection kept our festival Challenge from working out as planned, but I do appreciate that Cristna & Dani managed to break the ice and get it started!

This festival reminded me exactly why JamChallenged exists: to motivate musicians to practice more, improve, and have fun through creative challenges.

I believe that together, we can help each other grow in multiple ways. So, if we connected at the festival, this is where the fun continues. If not, here’s your chance to join JamChallenged.

By the way, our #DavidGilmourChallenge is live right now! You can enter for a chance to win cinema tickets to the screening of David Gilmour’s Rome concert from last year as part of the Luck And Strange tour! LE: We've also added the #OmulPereteChallenge, check it out on our Discord. Join us now.

If that's not your thing, that's ok, create your own challenges, the same way you did at the festival. Keep the vibe going throughout the year, so that for the next festival edition, we would have significantly progressed! See you on Discord, get started now.