Okay, maybe the title is a bit of an exaggeration. I am sure not everyone who is leaving Romania is doing it to get away from the Wonderland family fest. In fact, I’ve met quite a few rich people who held birthday parties at Wonderland. (I don’t know why, but they did.)
The place itself is not as bad as the 2025 “aftermovie” they chose to put on their site. It’s as if their social media person wants them to fail. What a questionable choice of song! Perhaps they misheard the lyrics. After all, a lot of people think Eurythmics are singing, “Sweet dreams are made of cheese…”
But, if you’re having a bunch of dancers smiling at the camera, you don’t choose a song with lyrics like, “some of them want to use you… some of them want to abuse you… some of them want to be …” No! Do not use that song for a family gathering. It is just so wrong.
Hopefully, the reason they chose that song is because their English is terrible. Either way, we can not recommend Wonderland to our readers, even if they claim in one banner that it is the largest festival in Europe. At least you should know enough Romanian to say, “cântecul asta e gresit.” Or “versurile acelea sunt greșite.”
It’s weird though. The aftermovie for the first edition has people swimming in the pool, looking at dinosaurs, sky diving, ferris wheels, facepainting, archery, a little bit of innocent dancing, a lot of entertainers on stage, a bonfire, fireworks, and the song even says, “Family Fest.” “Ne jucăm, și cântăm.” We play and sing.
Okay, if I have to go, I might stay in the pool, or with the dinosaurs, away from the Annie Lennox songs and the film editor who chose that song. Far away from the editor who chose that song.
The second edition looks like an imitation of Carnival and a music festival, and some rapper’s “white party.” Why did they have to use that song?
If you want to know the dates to avoid Wonderland, the festival runs from 31 July, to the 2nd of August.
They haven’t yet published this year’s activities, but in past years, the fun activities listed above were mostly at additional charges, yet free activities included things like ukulele lessons. Ukulele is not a Romanian word, but what if you wanted to say “the ukuleles” in Romanian? Unfortunately, in official Romanian, Ukulele has no plural. But, the ukulele is ukulelele! If I were on the language board, I would make the plural definitive (the ukuleles) ukulelelele.
If you are interested in going, it will probably be expensive. You’ll probably have to pay for something. So, perhaps you should start saving up now. (And if they ask you to sign a release to be in their next music video, ask what song they’ll be using.)