2026 International Danube Festival: DYON Brings Bosnia and Herzegovina and The Länd Together
For three days, Theme Tent 2 at the International Danube Festival in Ulm served as a meeting place for people from Baden-Württemberg and Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was spinning, snacking, and marveling
There are moments when a tent is more than just a tent. For example, when a visitor from Ulm holds a hand spindle for the first time, guided by a woman in Celtic attire—and next door, photographs of the Danube glow, while the scent of rose- and nut-flavored Turkish delight wafts through the air. For three days, from July 3 to 5, Theme Tent 2 at the 14th International Danube Festival was exactly that: a place where Baden-Württemberg and Bosnia and Herzegovina joined hands.
“DYON Meets Bosnia and Herzegovina and The Länd” —that was the name of the program, spearheaded by a well-coordinated trio: danube-connects Editor-in-Chief Sabine Geller, German-Bosnian journalist Mirella Sidro, and Stefan Barth, director of Agapedia, a children’s aid organization founded 30 years ago by Jürgen Klinsmann . Together, the three have already organized two DYON Boot Camps: the first in 2025 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the second this May in Baden-Württemberg on the Danube—right where Celtic culture once began at Heuneburg.
Spinning Wool Like Our Ancestors Did
And it was the Celts who provided one of the most memorable moments in Ulm. Members of the Heuneburg Celtic group demonstrated in the tent how wool was spun centuries ago—and the guests didn’t need to be asked twice. Time and again, visitors picked up the spindle themselves—concentrated, laughing, and surprised at just how much skill this ancient craft requires. What many learned for the first time: This technique isn’t just a relic of the past. In Lukomir, for example—the highest and oldest mountain village in Bosnia and Herzegovina—women still spin their wool this way to this day.
But why is Bosnia and Herzegovina part of the Danube region, even though the Danube never flows through the country? The answer lies in its waterways: Its rivers—the Una, Sana, Vrbas, Bosna, and Drina—flow into the Sava, which in turn flows into the Danube, thereby contributing to Europe’s second-largest river. Without the water from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Danube as we know it would not exist.
Artistic Flags That Tell Fairy Tales
It’s no coincidence that this very thought was on the minds of the festivalgoers: The 666 flags lining the banks of the Danube this year—handcrafted at the Art Quarter Budapest and inspired by fairy tales and legends from all the countries along the Danube, including Bosnia —tell the same story. “The river is the result of a vast network of connections,” the artists write in their concept. And this is reflected in the fact that the Danube is considered the most international river in the world, flowing through 10 countries and encompassing many more within its watershed.
The guests arrived, were amazed—and stayed. With lokum from Bosnia and Wibele from the Ländle, conversations flowed naturally. The youngest visitors discovered Bosnia and Herzegovina through coloring maps to take home, provided by the Sarajevo-based organization Mali Ambasadori ( “The Little Ambassadors” ) had translated specifically into German. And those who were lucky even won a piece of art: One of the photographs on display by Dominic Lars Breitbarth—whose images from the Danube region and Ulm provided the tent with its atmospheric backdrop—was raffled off. The winner, a resident of Ulm, was beaming: a “work of art from his hometown.”
Some encounters, however, ran deeper. There was a couple who, ten years ago, decided that instead of going to the U.S. with their four children, they would rather travel through Europe—and in the process got to know all the Balkan countries. When she watched the film about DYON in Baden-Württemberg and Bosnia and Herzegovina while camping, she had an idea: the children should participate in the next boot camp.
River Literature from Bosnia on the Danube
Literature also built a bridge: At the Stadthaus Ulm, Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer Faruk Šehić, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature, read alongside Austrian author Franziska Füchsl in a session titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Rivers.” His river, the Una, and her Mühl are both on their way to the Danube. Two rivers that meet through a river, even if they do not flow side by side.
“Paprikaschiff” and Hildegard Knef in Ulm
The festival weekends also had a poetic touch: On Saturday and Sunday, the Romanian-German poet S. Katharina Eismann and the Ulm-based musician Bernd Weltin invited visitors to join a poetic-historical walk—an entertaining tour through the Fischerviertel featuring poems, anecdotes, legends, and stories, tracing the footsteps of the Danube Swabians as they moved between the past and the present. They once set out from Ulm, traveling down the Danube toward an uncertain future—their story, too, is a story of the river that connects.
Distinguished guests also stopped by: Ulm’s Mayor Martin Ansbacher, First Mayor Martin Bendel, Hungarian politician Péter Márki-Zay, and Damir Arnaut, the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were given a tour of the tent.
When the last guests left on Sunday evening, there was a sense that things would continue to move forward here. In September, we’ll be heading to Bulgaria for the next DYON Boot Camp. The thread, which has been spun further in Ulm, shows no signs of breaking.
The presentation was made possible by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation, the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, and the Danube Office in Ulm/Neu-Ulm.
