Vacanţa Mare, or The Great Holiday (referring to the summer break), is a Romanian humour group. The group was established in 1988 by Dan Sava, Mugur Mihăescu and Radu Pietreanu. In 2007 the group is formed by Mihăescu, Pietreanu and Florin Axinte Petrescu, but also includes some co-workers: Iulian Frankfurt Ilinca, Emil Mitică Rădinoiu, Mirela Lila Stoian and George Romică Robu. The beginnings Vacanţa Mare was formed as a student hobby group in the late 1980s. At first the group was made up by five, but it was not very popular. After two members left the group, Vacanţa Mare started to have shows by the seaside, especially during the summer holidays. In 1992, at a non-professional stand-up comedy contest, the group came in second for the "Burduful de Aur" award, where they were spotted by talent hunter Nicu Dragosin. He determined them to continue their stand-up comedy acts (they wanted to give up their routine at that point), while transforming them from amateurs into a professional group. Their first motto was Noi nu suntem normali (literally "We're not normal"). The group became famous and began staging 4 tours yearly: two national tours in spring and autumn and two at the seaside and sometimes in Bucharest. The three used to do parodies of songs, changing the lyrics and replacing them with political events sung alongside a guitar. The group made a signature entrance on stage, with a soundtrack based on "The Final Countdown" by Europe. Furthermore, their exit was always done on a remix of Floare de Iris of the Iris band and on the folk song Ţăranul e pe câmp (known in English as "The Farmer In The Town"), the spectators being invited to sing along. The show consisted from a series of 5-10 sketches and stand-up routines, 5–10 minutes each, followed by 5–30 minutes of song remixes playing satirizing a political or cultural event. Many of the sketches featured common Romanian regional or cultural stereotypes (such as the stupid policemen in Garcea, the stereotypical countryside fools, always drunk and fighting each other in Leana and Costel, or the not-so-successful thieves in Crapu and Menumorut). TV shows After Dan Sava's death in 1999, the two remaining members continued to activate, in the autumn of 1999 the group started a weekly show on Pro TV. The shows had a running time of one hour, being aired at prime-time (8 PM). The