Danube Day is celebrated on June 29 along the whole River Basin. It highlights the anniversary of the Danube River Protection Convention, signed on June 29, 1994, in Sofia, Bulgaria. All countries of the Danube Basin jointly cherish and acknowledge the vital role of the River. DANUrB+ partnership continues the tradition of inspiring the local communities through various celebrations and festivities dedicated to the Power of the Danube!

Come with us and let’s have a look at the various Danube Day’s festivities in some DANUrB+ partner countries!

• Giurgiu, Romania

Project partner, Association for Urban Transition, relaunched the “Danube Days” Festival in Giurgiu. During the weekend 26th - 27th June, residents of Giurgiu had the chance to take part in activities for promotion and celebration of the local heritage of the Danube and the city. The festival centered around the mobile lab for urban exploration, the URBOTECA van, which welcomed residents with a pop-up creative station for discussions about Giurgiu in the center of the city as well as in the harbor. Various activities such as interactive mapping, drawing contests on local heritage, discussions about stories and traditions from Giurgiu, writing letters to the city, promoting local tours and future educational programs, attracted the attention of the visitors.

The festival helped to promote the cultural and social heritage of the city and its link to the Danube as a topic that can bring the community together in celebrating the social life of Giurgiu, its places, and local stories.

Residents were curious and open to a discussion about the city, by sharing concerns, ideas for change, stories, places, and traditions they would like to see further promoted and advertised. Among the most popular observations was highlighted the need for local investment in architectural and natural heritage sites and harbor development for touristic purposes in line with previous points raised in the online stakeholders meeting in Giurgiu.

Children were especially keen to get involved in a drawing contest for industrial heritage organized through a local initiative and hosted at the van during the festival. The collection of drawing with #podbizetz, a local heritage element in Giurgiu, will be turned into postcards for local promotion later this year.

Access to the festival was free and residents proved their interest in taking part in similar future events to share their views on the city. The festival was developed as part of DANUrB+ project in Giurgiu through a partnership between Association for Urban Transition, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism and Giurgiu Municipality.

• Esztergom, Szigetzug, Szigetújfalu, in Hungary

During 24.-25.06.2021 the House of Connections (Kapcsolatok Háza) hosted a Danube themed “Tótágas – Kids’ festival” for the local kids in Esztergom. At the two days event the children were able to learn about eco-friendly ways to do the laundry, thanks to the Danube Museum in Esztergom, and saw an exciting lecture on how life developed under water called “Life in the water drop”, thanks to the Geoda Museum.

The Contemporary Architecture Centre was also able to join the DANUrB+ initiative with two educational programs for the kids. The first day a guest drama teacher, Lina Zétényi, was invited and she hosted a creative program where the children participated in the re-discovering of their city.

The kids were introduced to the DANUrBanity game for a second time, which is the improved version of the award-winning game called Urbanity, developed by the Hungarian association KultúrAktív. Thanks to this game, there was a discussion with the children about the city, how they perceive their home and what is their connection to the Danube and the riverbank.

The kids had a great time, they were very attentive during the games and had some great ideas about city development and the future usage of the Danube.

Szigetzug hosted and will host a number of events during a weeklong celebration of the Danube.

On Tuesday afternoon, 29.06.2021, the Department of Urban Planning and Design Faculty of Architecture, Budapest University of Technology and Economics organized an exhibition opening in Ráckeve called “Future vision of the city”. The exhibition included the work of the students in the department. They worked last semester in Ráckeve and at the end of the semester they all presented their future visions about the city and its connection to the river.

On Thursday, 01.07.2021, with the support of the Contemporary Architecture Centre the city of Szigetszentmárton will host a film screening called “The Danube through the Eyes of the Creators”. It will include the movie Sodrás (Drift) from Valyo (City and River Association) and the movie RSD - The Condemned River by Balázs Szendőfi.

Check out the movie screening poster here:

https://www.facebook.com/szigetzugidunanapok/photos/a.202475387048500/828079977821368/

On Saturday, the 2nd national meeting of the Archaeological Associations in Hungary will be held in Szigetújfalu. The meeting will include educational lectures, traditional art and craft programs, gold panning and a cycling tour. The Contemporary Architecture Centre will be there with a DANUrB+ stand and some creative activities for the kids.

• Dalj, Erdut, Vukovar, in Croatia

Project partner Nansen Dialogue Centre organized a series of events related to the Danube Day celebration.

The first event was held on June 17, starting with a bicycle race from Dalj – Erdut and it was enriched with a creative and thematic workshop program related to the Danube. Various games, sport events and other activities took place in Erdut for the group of 100+ pupils and around 20 teachers.

On June 24, a visit was organized to Vukovar and Vukovart project for a group of 30 pupils and 2 accompanying teachers. Participants had a chance to get insights of artwork on Vukovar buildings and the artists, who created them. Along with viewing the art installation, participants visited the Museum of Vučedol Culture. Expert guide took the visitors 5000 years back in time to get to know one of the oldest European cultures.

The last event took place on June 29 (Danube Day) in Dalj. A Kahoot quiz (with symbolic prizes for the participants) related to Danube was organized. The captivating DANUrBanity board game involved the participants and visitors. Several discussions were held, including further exploration about Dalj community and other culture related topics to the river. Furthermore, STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics) related workshop was organized, where through interactive experiments in physics and chemistry, pupils discovered the power and properties of the water.

All activities were implemented in partnership with Dalj Primary School and Plantaža Osijek Association.

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DANUrB+ project was launched in July 2020 to activate underused cultural heritage and resources on the peripheral and border regions along the Danube River. It is co-financed by the Interreg Danube Transnational Program 2014-2020. The expected result is to increase local development and international tourist attractiveness.

Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF and IPA).