RosiaMontanaFest1

Travel: Where Milk And Cheese Meets Metal

August, 2007

    The quaint little village of Rosia Montana (Red Mountain) owes everything to the gold mining industry which founded it, named it, raised it and now, according to some, threatening to destroy it. It is out of this controversy between the village inhabitants who claim �this land is our land� and the Canadian owned gold company whose intentions are buying up the little Transylvanian village that has sprouted Romania�s largest environmental festival, �Fan Fest� (Hay Fest).
     I went to see for myself what kind of festival this uppity little community of dairy farmers would throw. For some seven years they have held back the Gold company�s plans of taking the town and grinding down its surrounding hills. For some that alone was worth the struggle, but what irked most � and particularly a vast network of non-governmental organizations from across the globe who have since joined the fight, is the highly toxic cyanide solution that will be used to separate the valuable gold and silver from the ore, and here is where the controversy becomes a concern, after all the gold has been stripped that cyanide solution will be left behind in the valley within the walls of a specially built dam� �An environmental time bomb�, claim the opponents.
     By appearance Rosia Montana is a sleepy little town nestled deeply within the lush Apuseni Mountains right in the heart of Transylvania. It�s a place lost in time � where horse and wagon clip-clop across cobblestone roads, meadows are still cleared by a swooping scythe, towering caps of dry hay dot the sloping landscape and every Christmas the fattened family pig is dragged out into the courtyard and slaughtered with a knife to the throat.

    Though once a year, during the last weekend in August, this idyllic little community finds itself invaded by hordes of backpacking youths, motorcyclist, shirtless punks covered in tattoos or all black, numerous piercing and colored hair. The sounds of foreign tongues crisscross the streets. They come from all corners of Romania, across Europe and the Americas.
     I followed a clan of backpackers (I presumed they knew where they were going) over lumpy cobblestone streets through town, passed ruins, like the former casino � a sign of better days, and old stone homes stepped along the slopes desperately in need of repair � some bearing crisscrossing hammers imprinted into the wall, the mark of the old miners. I was aghast by the eerie silence about the place. If it was not for the subtle drawing back of curtains in the windows I would have thought the inhabitants had all but disappeared - not unlike the ghost towns of other past mining communities of the old West where once the company closes its doors the place dies.
     But the difference of this town and other old dried up mining communities is the roots. The roots in Rosia Montana are deep - 2000 years long. The ancient Romans under Emperor Trajan�s lead seized this profitable land from the indigenous Dacians, a Thracian people. They named it Alburnus Maior (Major Settlement). Back in those day wars were fought for the gold. The old Roman mines still perforate these hills, most are still yet to be excavated. Since the Romans, gold mining in Rosia Montana never ceased, only the methods have changed. The 18th century brought the Hapsburgs and a new rush of immigrants seeking wealth poured in. There came Hungarian, Austrian, German, Italian, Jewish and Greek. Their presence lives on along the cemetery markers in the church yards of the communities five different denominations. Many of today�s inhabitants are descendants from these early settlers. �Here it is like your California during the gold rush,� explains the local Catholic priest Robert Lukacs. �Wherever gold is found people come and from all over. They come to get rich.�

But today Rosia Montana is no longer mining � or doing much of anything. In 2002 the gold companies lobbying had the area categorized as an industrial zone and which has prevented any new growth. Some perceive the gold company�s tactics as a economical siege devised to slowly starve the resistance into submission. During an earlier visit to Rosia Montana I spoke with Sanda Lungu. At the time she was ready to fight tooth and nail to the bitter end. I revisited Sanda before making my way to the hilltop Fan Fest. She was now ready to start packing. �For my children,� was the justification. �There is nothing for them here. What choices do they have but to pick prunes or look after cows.�
Still that fighting spirit of the resistance comes alive on the �don�t tread on me� yellow markers declaring, �this property is NOT for sale� hanging high along the wall right next door to the �Union blue� signs stamped �Property of Rosia Montana Gold Corporation�.
�It is a conflict that has created a lot of friction. It�s turned children against parents, neighbor against neighbor, Christian against Christian,� laments Fr. Lukacs . �On Sunday mass we try not to speak about it. We try to remain together for at least this one day.�

    The backpackers, and myself at the rear, headed up into the hills. After a while they noticed me and we got talking; this was their third Fan Fest they were attending and I was relieved to hear that they knew where they were going because we were traversing over foot paths splattered with cow dung, then through a lush meadow and under an orchard of prune trees with a falling of purely unadulterated ripened fruit tasting like candy, finally opening up to the green hilltop field of Vaidoaia Plateau � Fan Fest. Mushroom tents scattered the open field. They were everywhere: along the level ground, along the slopes and very edges of the black forest, just about as far as the eye could see.
     According to local dairy farmer Eugene David, who also happens to be president of the Alburnus Maior association. The main purpose of the event is to show people a good time while informing them of the true consequences of the project, �not what Gabriel says but what they don�t say�. Another purpose is to help promote the area towards tourism. Mr. David explains the area�s nature walks, culture, history and museum with its open Roman mine that burrows deeply into the hills. �The third purpose - and now most importantly,� adds Mr. David with a pleased smirk and his large six-foot-six frame heightens, �is to lobby their senators to vote �yes� on a new law presently going through parliament that will forbid the use of cyanide in mining.� If passed it will categorically end Gabriel�s plans.

     These dairy farmers just might win�