Once-in-a-deathtime opportunity: Sleep in a coffin in Dracula's hometown!

A vampire festival in Transylvania invites you to sleep in a coffin in Dracula’s hometown: June 7-10, 2018.

Ever feel the beating heart of the Transylvanian mountains? In a Transylvania town called Sighisoara, where the medieval towers and stony lanes are fabled to lure vampires, now there's something even more bloody palatable to experience. The vampire film and art festival called Vampfest will breach the ancient walled citadel of Transylvania’s most notorious ruler, Vlad Ţepeş, better known as Vlad the Impaler.

Spend a night in vampire hell

This means YOU can go and sleep just like the undead! Spend the night in a luxury coffin, in an otherwise deserted medieval catacomb under the hilltop town just like Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel. According to Festival Organizer Craig Hooper, sleeping in a coffin beneath the citadel guarantees quite a scary experience. “This town is so old you can feel the history seeping from the stones around you, not least the history around it’s most famous and most bloodthirsty son, Vlad Dracula, and the vampire myth that has existed in this part of the world for centuries," he said.

“The coffins will be comfortable but I think you’ve got to be brave – or at least make sure your imagination doesn’t run away with you in those dark hours – otherwise you won’t sleep at all,” Hooper said.

For those too spooked (or sane) to snooze in a coffin, the festival offers other exclusive rewards, including an after-dark ‘Banquet of Blood’ inside of Dracula’s castle at Bran. From South Wales, Craig and colleague Peter Phillips have been running Vampfest in Transylvania since 2016. According to their press release, this year's festival will be bigger, better and bloodier than ever before. They’re looking to raise £10,000 to make the already well-established festival into the most talked-about horror event of the year.

The four-day festival will include screenings of original and classic vampire films, trips to Dracula’s fortresses, live bands and lots of vampire-themed parties. It also hosts the Vampire Academic Conference, run by US university Seton Hill, where the keynote speaker will be bestselling Buffy The Vampire Slayer author Christopher Golden.

Other special guests include Bram Stoker’s direct descendant Dacre Stoker and the Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress who plays Drusilla, Juliet Landau. For more information about the festival Kelly Gumbley kelly@ivfaf.com or or Aimee Thomas: aimee@ivfaf.com. See also ivfaf.com.