Along with the plenty of musical festivals that no doubt bring a lot of sparks in our lives if we manage to attend them even if just for the whole experience rather than those getting up on the stage, there are some other festivals too... like one for trucks, for example.

Actually, I'm pretty sure there are festivals for almost any domain out there, so this shouldn't be surprising, but of course, I can't hide my joy when managing to attend one that is way so different from anything experienced in the past.

Some of you might remember this post, but in case you missed it, a few days ago I wrote about my experience returning to a place that I visited when I was a kid but which I'd happily see again whenever the opportunity occurs. However, not the fortress itself represented the main scope of the trip because personally, I was more excited about the festival which also makes the subject of today's post.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a travel lover and will always be, but some places that I visit I'm pretty sure will be there even after some time passes while the festival is temporary and if you miss it, you will end up waiting at least one more year until being able to attend it again. Hope that makes sense... or at least it does in my head, lol.

The first time I heard about the Truck Tuning Art Festival was in 2022, but I only found out about it from the news when it was already the last day of the event, and way too hard to make it there in time while I am living 1 hour away of driving from Alba Iulia and I don't own a car so I would end up at a hitchhiker's mercy since the buses and trains have a pretty weird schedule.

So I decided to take lots of screenshots and keep them locked in a folder that is dedicated to remembering things (and I'm not even that old, lol!), follow all the social media pages of the festival, and just wait until the next edition.

Happy or not, time flew in a blink and the next edition arrived, so together with my sister and my boyfriend, we made it to the festival. Unfortunately, we missed the parade of the trucks that happened on the first day of the festival, but we called ourselves satisfied to see that on TV and enjoy the rest of the experience in person.

Even if the festival is held inside the citadel that represents the main attraction of the city, no matter if you have planned a walk around that part of the city or not, it's almost impossible not to find out about the event because from time to time the drivers simply take a random walk in town either to the shop or to gather a bit more attention from people.

Not to mention the never-ending sound created by the drivers who constantly honked the horn and began a friendly battle about which truck makes the biggest noise. Some of these trucks even had some sort of templates implemented to reproduce famous songs through honking which took everything to the next level!

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Goosebumps, shivers going down the spine, adrenaline, and smiles. That's all I've got to feel and see on most of the people's faces that were walking between the trucks. It's true that I am passionate about these huge vehicles because I play Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator since they were released. I even have a gaming steering wheel which makes the whole experience more authentic, but even without these, I'd still have a guilty pleasure for this field even if it resumes to just showing my respect to those who set the world in motion through their job.

I heard lots of stories that it's an easy job where all you have to do is to drive from A to B and deliver cargo, but it's not that easy because, like any other job, this one has its risks too, which in some cases are really wild ones.

Click on the images to see them in full resolution

Another saying that I keep hearing is that it's a domain only for men... nothing more wrong than that.

I know quite a few girls who are driving these huge toys in the company of either their fathers, boyfriends, or siblings. It's true that it's a domain mostly dominated by men, but I don't think there is a job or career exclusively dedicated to them because women demonstrated quite a few times that they can do a lot of things from these marked as being only for men.

Anyway, this has been just the 3rd edition of the festival which is already enjoying a huge success with almost 150 trucks that took part from both Romania and other countries in the edition I attended. Being only at the beginning, most of the trucks are driven by Romanian drivers, having just around 15 from Hungary and Italy but I can't wait to see how this evolves in a few years and taste a bit of the creativity of those from other countries, even though I was surprised over and over again with those created by the current participants too.

From old school to modern ones, from European to American trucks, from minimalism to plenty of color, every single truck that took part in the Truck Tuning Art Festival found both its spot and fans.

Some of the participants even let people get inside the trucks to see where the whole magic happens, while others showed their gratitude by sharing balloons or candy with anyone who was looking for one more reason to smile.

I know that this post already comes with a lot of information and images, but keep in mind that it's only half of what the whole experience looked like through the lens of my phone camera, because I decided to split it in two different posts to avoid spamming, so another edition will come up soon, which is more dedicated to the gaming and movie lovers. No spoilers!

The official page of the festival you can find HERE.

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SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additonally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (260+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 550+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

~ @GabrielaTravels ~