Rock Monsters Romania

Bucharest Photofest, the city’s international festival dedicated to photography and visual culture, marks its 10th anniversary this year. Taking place from October 10 to 19, 2025, and built around the theme LEGACY, the festival celebrates a decade of stories, vision, and artistic exchange. Although photography lies at its core, Bucharest Photofest has always embraced interdisciplinary encounters, with music playing a vital role in shaping its immersive atmosphere. For this special edition, three distinct concerts will bring sound and image together in powerful ways, each resonating with the festival’s spirit of exploration.

October 10: Hinako Omori (JP/UK) @ Control

The festival opens with the mesmerizing sounds of Hinako Omori, a Japanese-born, London-based artist known for crafting immersive sonic architectures. Her music explores emotional states through binaural recordings, multi-channel installations, and a delicate interplay between ambient synthesizer layers, vocals, and classical composition.

Omori’s layered approach has been widely acclaimed: her debut album a journey… was hailed as “remarkable” by Pitchfork and “blissfully restorative” by Loud and Quiet, while stillness, softness… was described as “a deeply enchanting patchwork” by Electronic Sound. Her live performance promises a contemplative yet transformative experience, the perfect prologue to a festival dedicated to visual and sensory depth.

October 18: Grift (SE) Solo Performance @ Nais Space

Midway through the festival, audiences will encounter the haunting soundscapes of Grift, the solo project of Swedish artist Erik Gärdefors. Grift’s music embodies a kind of existential escapism, offering listeners a temporary refuge from the weight of everyday norms, a space where melancholy and transcendence coexist.

Over more than a decade, Grift has cultivated a reputation as a sought-after live performer, moving seamlessly between intimate solo shows and full-band settings. His performance at Nais Space will invite audiences into a world of fragile beauty and reflective solitude.

October 19: Drew McDowall (SCT/USA) & Pedro Maia (PT)

The festival closes with a powerful audio-visual ritual featuring legendary experimental artist Drew McDowall (ex-Coil) and visual artist Pedro Maia.

McDowall has spent decades shaping the contours of experimental and industrial music, weaving together mystical drones, modular synthesis, and electroacoustic textures into soundscapes where the sacred collides with the profane. His rare live appearance in Bucharest will be amplified by Maia’s analog film projections, performed in real time, transforming the concert into an all-encompassing sensory experience.

This closing night embodies the very essence of Bucharest Photofest, where sound, image, and emotion converge in a shared exploration of artistic legacy.

Bucharest Photofest runs October 10–19, 2025, with concerts, exhibitions, screenings, workshops, and talks taking place across the city.

Full program and ticket details are available at bucharestphotofest.ro.