“Tickets to the theater disappear in 60 seconds!”/ The “sold out” phenomenon in Romanian theaters has spread to several cities

Theater shows are often played to full houses. Tickets sell out quickly. Last month, tickets for 15 performances at the Sibiu International Theater Festival (FITS) sold out shortly after they went on sale, including those for “Faust”, directed by Silviu Purcărete, which sold out almost instantly.

• The “sold out” phenomenon is encountered in several large theaters in the country and has given rise to a new need: notification services and discussion groups when tickets will go on sale. The most famous of these reached 80,000 members.
• “Does anyone have a plausible explanation for the fact that the tickets for many important shows within FITS have been changed to unavailable?” asks Mihaela Miroiu, teacher at SNSPA.
• At FITS, which takes place this year between June 19 and 28, only 75% of the tickets reach the paying public, Constantin Chiriac, the director of the festival, tells HotNews.
• An organized group of people seeking access to performances was also founded. It is called “We go to the theater” and it is initiated by Laura Ivancioiu. It has 80,000 people.

“Tail — trademark” for food in communism and theater in democracy. Tickets sell quickly both in the country and in Bucharest. “It's easier to find Metallica tickets on the day of the concert than to buy theater tickets in Bucharest”, says Roxana Poede, communication expert.

“We're talking about fractions of a second”

“I tried only once, last week. I've been wanting to go to the “Club 27″ show for a very long time, since last year, I kept checking on the internet and it was sold out”, Roxana Poede tells HotNews about her experience.

“Last week I finally saw on the theater's Instagram that tickets go on sale on May 13, at 11 a.m., for the next “Club 27″ performances. I went in and refreshed before 11 a.m., at 11 a.m. the shows were posted, and although I selected seats from those marked as available, when I went to pay it said that at least one was already taken, it was no longer available. I repeated the process with other seats apparently available, active, and I got the same message — that at least one is no longer available, we're talking about fractions of a second,” says Poede.

“75% of tickets placed on sale”

After the tickets went on sale at FITS, Mihaela Miroiu, the teacher at SNSPA wrote on her Facebook page: “Does anyone have a plausible explanation for the fact that tickets for many important shows within FITS were switched to unavailable the moment they went on sale? Practically: there was no access to any tickets in second 2.”

Contacted by HotNews, the director of FITS and TNRS, Constantin Chiriac, says that two-thirds of the tickets on sale at FITS are intended for the public, and the rest are reserved for partners, sponsors, artists, journalists, influencers and directors of festivals and theaters and those who participate in the Bursa de Spectacole, the program within the festival.

“75% were freely put up for sale. It is normal that the great artists, festival directors and partners we have can be brought to “Faust”, to the shows that the National Theater plays during the festival. Those who come to the Performance Exchange, buyers and investors, must be able to see the miracles (not the shows) in the festival. This has always happened. The moment we exhaust all the debts we have, everything we undertake, any remaining ticket is put up for sale”, Constantin Chiriac said, adding that the ticket price is “really modest”, between 30 and 200 lei.

Throughout the 32 editions (1994-2025), the Sibiu International Theater Festival (FITS) had as guests numerous politicians, officials and high-ranking diplomats, both from Romania and abroad, but the festival manager says that they do not “benefit from this right” to receive reserved seats.

Constantin Chiriac stated that, in addition to direct sales, there are also tickets offered through competitions organized by the festival's sponsors and partners, as part of interactive activations through which participants can gain access to the shows. It is about “700 tickets to all the shows”, says Constantin Chiriac.

I asked Constantin Chiriac what someone could do who has been wanting to get a ticket to some shows for years and didn't succeed, such as “Faust” directed by Silviu Purcărete.

One of the largest cultural centers in Romania, under construction in Sibiu

The director announced that he is working on the restoration of the Culture Factory which used to be an industrial hall, which due to the structure, can only host performances in the summer and spring. The plan includes an enlargement of the current space, with the objective of becoming one of the largest cultural centers in Romania. The project has been progressing for approximately 3 years from the discussion phase to the completion of financing. So far Sibiu City Hall has bought the space, and the rest of the money could come from Norwegian funds and private financing.

“We will get some European, Norwegian funds so that the Culture Factory can operate for a whole year. Let's build another space and give it away,” the director told HotNews.

Admission to volunteer at the festival

Not only are tickets highly sought after for FITS shows, but so is the opportunity to be a festival volunteer. The application and acceptance system is one based on “meritocracy”, the director claims, with hundreds of young people taking the exam to work for FITS. They get water, food and sometimes the opportunity to enter performances where they can, and parents who host international students “have advantages too”.

“You know what a battle it is to become a volunteer? But it's based on meritocracy. They have to know two languages. They have to come with a personal project in such a way that it's not only useful for the festival. It's a competition, as I said, because out of almost 10,000 applicants, 550 remain. Everyone comes with a project, and depending on the options they have, we manage to distribute them to the areas that, by occupying them, they will give them a chance to develop, but at the same time to be useful to the festival. They are welcome in all the events we have for free, at the same time they have a badge (badge number) with which they enter the festival yard, which means privileged meetings. Of course, they have a period of at least two weeks, they come earlier, they leave later and we have prizes for them, we find a formula,” explains the director.

“It's normal, no one is equal to the other”

Asked what chance he offers to young people who have never been to the theater or who do not know about these options, if an exam is needed to be a FITS volunteer, the director of the festival answers that during the year the TNRS team already organizes the theater, readings and activities in the schools of Sibiu and that no one has the same “development possibilities”.

“Every day we go down to all the schools in Sibiu and the county. We do shows, readings, for all the students, for free. We go to the seniors, we go everywhere. It's normal, no one is equal to the other. Only God, before Him, we are equal. We are equal before the law, but, as development possibilities, we are not equal, and then it's normal. Romania should fight for meritocracy”, Constantin Chiriac claims.

“There is a whole discussion about these tickets reserved for officials”

Laura Ivancioiu, founder of the “Mergem la teatru” group, confirmed for HotNews the sold-out phenomenon. Since she created the group in 2020, during the pandemic, the number of its members has grown noticeably, reaching 80,000.

“There is a whole discussion about these tickets reserved for officials, for the mayor's office and so on. And on the group Going to the theater there were many discussions about this topic.
I mean, obviously, I know there are seats set aside for bookings, but what I do know for sure is that the appetite for theater has grown. Here I can pronounce myself precisely. The group “We are going to the theater” has reached 80,000 people, it has grown enormously in recent years”, says Laura Ivăncioiu.

Tickets sold out on New Year's Eve

The founder of “We're going to the theater” talks about how theater tickets sell out and at times when people usually have other concerns.

“It's a common phenomenon in recent years. I don't know if it's normal or not; if the habit has become normality, then it is a normal phenomenon. This has been happening for several years now, especially at the shows in Bucharest, but also at big festivals, such as the one in Sibiu and even the one in Constanța, at SEAS, not to mention FNT. The tickets run out in minutes or even seconds.”

“I remember now a show that went on sale on New Year's Eve 2024, when, if I'm not mistaken, Metropolis shows went on sale: 'Who Killed Daddy?' I think there were five or seven performances. That was the trick: that they went on sale at midnight on New Year's Eve when everyone was partying. And all the tickets for this show are sold out, five performances, I repeat, in a few minutes. Two, three minutes or something like that. And this, for me, was a “wow”, so to speak, but it constantly happens, in recent years, that the tickets sell out in a few minutes”, says Laura Ivancioiu.

The group's founder says that it's often hard or impossible to get hold of tickets for high-demand shows because they sell out quickly, but there are also notification services like PostPing that alert you when tickets become available.

“No one can convince me that there aren't more spectators”

“I used to buy tickets and write an article on my blog in which I said: “Look, I'm going to these shows in May. Who else wants to come with me to buy tickets. I then had time to buy my tickets, write the article on the blog, put it on Facebook and people had time to buy their tickets. Now, at this moment, it is absolutely impossible to do such a thing. Because the tickets, how well you started the discussion, end in 60 seconds. So that's about the change, the change in six years.

No one can convince me that there aren't more spectators. Once you start seeing some shows, you have more and more to see, not less and less. Because you start to like it”, concludes Laura Ivăncioiu.

In the small town, cultural institutions are disappearing

Among the most recent European data on cultural participation carried out by the EU statistical office shows that in 2022, in Romania, 14.5% of Romanians went to the cinema, 10.4% attended live performances (theatre, concerts, ballet), 13.6% visited cultural sites (museums, monuments, art galleries or archaeological sites), and in total only 22.2% participated in at least one cultural activity compared to over 70% in countries like Luxembourg and Denmark, according to statistics.

In Romania, the percentage of GDP allocated to culture for 2026 barely reached the 1% threshold, which the Minister of Culture, Andras Demeter, said was a “ridiculous target”. If in the capital's theaters or big cities in the country – the theaters boast of being “sold out”, the situation is not the same in small urban and rural Romania, where cultural institutions are on the verge of extinction.