NOSTALGIA 2025 unfolded not as a festival, but as a living memory. What was once a celebration of retro culture has now evolved into a full-scale ecosystem of experience design, where music, emotion, aesthetics, and brand storytelling collided across a landscape of curated moments. More than 72,000 people stepped into the past, but what they found was something entirely new.
The story began on the dance floor, where Banca Transilvania didn’t just decorate the Disco Fever stage, they shaped its atmosphere. The space shimmered with light and rhythm, transformed into a kinetic playground of colors, lightning, and disco beats. The same brand reawakened pure childhood chaos in a corner lined with bumper cars, where grown-ups grinned like kids.
Wander further and the air changed. At the heart of the Bazar, Kaufland built something closer to a festival within the festival. Their open-air village became a tapestry of micro-worlds: a fish market serving champagne and oysters on ice beneath a canopy of ropes and nets; a flower shop where guests braided flower crowns into their own hair and each other’s; a pastry stall perfumed with butter and sugar where people paused, not for content, but for comfort. It was less a brand activation and more a street scene from a dream, staged for both cameras and conversation.
At the Electro Stage, the presence of Johnnie Walker was unmistakable, though never overwhelming. Johnnie Walker wrapped the structure in warm light and liquid reflections. Inside, the music seemed to bend toward the design: crisp, confident, and bold. The stage also doubled as a collaborative platform, where emerging DJs played back-to-back with established names, creating unexpected sets and unforgettable handovers.People sipped, danced, and recharged not just their glasses, but their momentum.
That same electric confidence bled into the Interbelic Club, a takeover by Beck’s. They curated a shadowy, late-night habitat for the restless. Inside, it felt like a party you didn’t plan for but never wanted to leave, the kind of place where subcultures meet and music plays until the crowd forgets the time.
Elsewhere, a miniature boat appeared to float between stages. McDonald’s, always fluent in playfulness, crafted the tiniest boat party inside a festival space that recalled the pure joy of childhood birthdays. A ball pit hid merch prizes. A bubble machine filled the air with tiny, perfect distractions. And in the middle of it all, Ronald McDonald made a surprise appearance for a meet & greet that felt like running into an old cartoon friend. The activation also marked a milestone, McDonald’s celebrated 30 years in Romania, turning the moment into a toast to memories made across generations. It was a delight, layered with history and happiness.
Just beyond, the air grew tropical. Through a canopy of palms and neon fruit signage, Pfanner introduced Disco Tropical, a co-branded refreshment juice with NOSTALGIA, served at a tiki bar pulsing with beats and citrus. We blended the taste of Disco Tropical in various cocktails. Each cocktail was a remix of taste and heat, chased with a photo op at the 360 booth and conversations that didn’t need translation. Summer lived here.
And then the energy slowed. Transalpina Ice Cream invited guests into a mirrored labyrinth that felt less like a maze and more like a memory. Each room was a sensory meditation on feeling: exuberance, nostalgia, surrender, softness, all expressed through light, shape, scent, and silence. It wasn’t built to entertain. It was built to hold you.
For those needing stillness, Libris provided it. Inside a quiet, sun-dappled living room lined with books, festival goers sat with pens, not phones. One large open book lay on the table, waiting. By the end of the weekend, hundreds had written into it, fragments, confessions, one-liners, letters. That notebook is now becoming a book, a real one. One more thing that will outlast the weekend.
From there, the mood turned again, toward something communal. Coca-Cola curated one of the most talked-about spaces of the festival, merging a rooftop cocktail bar and fine dining into a culinary theatre. Linea / Closer to the Moon welcomed guests above it all with high-concept drinks and skyline views, while the promenade below featured plates by Indigen / Space for the Soul, Nishani | A fi sau a nu fi, and La Grande Bellezza | Discobar del futuro antico, not just food partners, but storytelling partners, each serving menus designed to unlock taste memories buried in the back of the brain.
Cramele Recaș built their own wine spot, where the warmth of an inn met the refinement of curated pairings. Throughout the day and deep into the night, a dedicated sommelier guided guests through food and wine matches that elevated every bite into something memorable. At any hour, their space buzzed with slow laughter, clinking glasses, and the gentle murmur of new friendships forming over rosé. It wasn’t just about tasting, it was about belonging.
The softest moment came from Converse, who built a living room as real as the one you grew up in. Low furniture. Dim lights. Sound bleeding in from outside. It wasn’t a place to pose, it was a place to let go.
Head & Shoulders brought back the salon chair as a center piece of self-expression. Inside their vibrant pop-up, festival goers lined up for colorful braids, glitter parts, and throwback ‘90s cuts that felt straight out of a high school yearbook. It wasn’t just a hair appointment, it was a transformation station, where every style told its own nostalgic story.
The lights dimmed inside Cinemateca Retro TVR. On the screen, flickering footage of old Romanian shows, forgotten commercials, iconic jingles. In the crowd, silence and smiles. The past came back for a few minutes. Not louder, not bigger. Just closer.
Sustainability had its own rhythm at NOSTALGIA 2025. In partnership with RetuRO, the festival community recycled over 25,000 bottles, turning simple habits into a shared commitment. It wasn’t a campaign moment, it was part of the atmosphere. Just like music, just like memories, responsibility echoed through the crowd.
NOSTALGIA 2025 was not defined by stages or set times, but by how deeply people felt inside spaces they didn’t want to leave. Every brand became a storyteller. Every activation, a chapter. And together, they shaped a world where the commercial disappeared into the experiential, and marketing became memory. This wasn’t a campaign. It was a collective emotional blueprint.
It was, without question, The Superbowl of Brand Activations in Festivals, where brands headlined, stories unfolded, and emotion became infrastructure.