After last year’s success, the Danube Days were organized again this year between June 29th and July 1st in Štúrovo, Esztergom, and this time also in Ráckeve and Szigetbecse on the Csepel Island, south of Budapest. The festival was jointly initiated by local municipalities and organisations and the DANUrB project partners KÉK, STU, BME and Pest County Municipality. It was part of the international Danube Day (June 29th) which celebrates the Danube River, its tributaries, and the vital role these water bodies play in providing water, food, hydropower, recreation and livelihood. In the settlements mentioned above, the aim of the Danube Days festival was to highlight the benefits of riverside living and to encourage local communities to actively use riverbanks as public spaces.

The Danube Days were launched on the Primate’s Island in Esztergom on June 29th with open-air concerts and a great variety of family programs, many related to the Danube, such as boat shows, a fishing course and barge building with scouts. The next day the festival continued on the other side of the Danube, at the head of the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo. It featured the presentation of traditional activities related to the Danube, and in the evening a concert of the headliner of the festival, the violinist Félix Lajkó.

This year also the town of Ráckeve and the village of Szigetbecse jointly hosted the festival under the title Szigetzug Danube Days, referring to the microregion located on the southern tip of the Csepel Island. Here the programs started on June 29th with a walk in Ráckeve with a mobile application as a guide and continued with an exhibition opening and a regional networking workshop in the afternoon and a thematic screening at the Danube pier during the evening. The next day offered an even more colourful program including historical lectures on topics related to the Danube, guided visits in the ship mill of Ráckeve and a photo workshop at the André Kertész Museum in Szigetbecse. The festival concluded with a community run across Szigetbecse on July 1st.

The Danube Days again proved that the building of regional networks and the cooperation of neighbouring settlements along the Danube is a goal worthy to strive for. As this was the second year of the festival, it has a real potential to become a stable part of the region’s cultural life during the summer season.    

For more information about the DANUrB project, please visit dtp.interreg-danube.eu/danurb
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Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF and IPA)