Danube Day 2019 in Hungary

Danube Day 2019

Three separate days of activity took place in Hungary to celebrate 2019's Danube Day:

Danube Day for Children & Families

Made possible by extensive collaboration and coordinated by the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, Danube Day for Children & Families was a tremendous success! From toddlers to pensioners, everyone could find activities and games, new information suitable for their age.

Participants could get acquainted with the hydrologic cycle and what we can do to preserve our precious drinking water. They held experiments to measure how fast water (or contamination) finds its way through different types of sediment, and how challenging it is to remove contamination that has already got into the soil. They got introduced to the fauna and flora living in the Danube from up close and they took part in establishing indigenous species in the river. They learned how to build sandbag dams in case of a flood risk, or they coloured pebbles and filled in colouring books. Everyone present could participate in numerous scientific or creative activities. For the little ones the puppetry was especially popular! The puppet plays taught children about proper behaviour and environmental protection.

Young and old alike, everyone was enchanted by the “Szent Flórián” fire-boat demonstration and the event-opener firefighter orchestra. The award ceremony of the Danube Art Master competition was held on the Danube Day as well. Closing the ceremony young and old danced together to the Blue Danube Waltz. 

Hungary is also putting a special emphasis on introducing the Danube Sturgeon to all Danube Day participants. These sorely endangered fish are one of the most important indicators when it comes to the health of the Danube River, and they are a special focal point for all ICPDR activities at the moment.

The Danube Day for Children & Families was hosted in Hungary  near the Water Tower on Margaret Island in Budapest (Margitszigeti Víztorony), between 10am-4pm on 29th June 2019.

International Danube Day

Taking place in the northwestern city of Győr, a second event took place as part of International Danube Day on June 28th. The schedule was especially varied:

11:00 - 17:30 – Sport race
18:30 - 20:00 – R-GO concert
11:00 - 17:00 – cooking competition 

Györkőc Kid Festival

Győrkőc is a kids festival held in Győr and well-known throughout Hungary. For years this event has been organized annually by the city, offering hundreds of events for children across 10 locations in the city. This year, the North Transdanubian Water Directorate joined in with the festivities to promote Danube Day.

The Water Directorate visited the festival with their partners:

The organisers placed the programs of the festival thematically by draughtsman's ships in the downtown. The representatives from various water governing bodies took part in the festival:

  • the North-Transdanubian Water Directorate;
  • Pannon-Víz Zrt.;
  • University of Széchenyi István and;
  • Technical SZC Hild József Construction Vocational High School.

The Water Directorate’s team presented the following activities for the children:

  • The older kids could try the Directorate’s own wooden toys such as puzzle of an aerial photo of Győr’s flood, a labyrinth of 4 rivers, and a memory game showing the main subjects of the Directorate, and a canoe trip game on a certain part of the Danube.
  • There were crafts for younger children: they could colour and made clouds and swan, stick or willow fish-scales from coloured papers.
  • They also could paint stones illustrated fishes or other water animals with decoupage or tempera technic.
  • The Directorate's intention was to draw attention to the importance of rivers, especially the “Safer Danube”, presenting the river itself and importance of its aquatic wildlife. Furthermore the aim was  to contribute to the development and strengthening of responsibility and sensitivity to waters and the environment.

This event took place throughout the city of Győr on 6-7th of July 2019.

Special thanks to the following organisations for their contribution:

  • Agrárminisztérium;
  • Belügyminisztérium;
  • Belügyminisztérium Országos Katasztrófavédelmi Főigazgatóság;
  • Budapesti Nyári Fesztivál;
  • Duna Múzeum;
  • Duna-Ipoly Nemzeti Park;
  • ELTE Tóth József és Erzsébet Hidrogeológia Professzúra és Alapítvány;
  • Fővárosi Vízművek és Wein János Alapítvány;
  • GWP Magyarország Alapítvány;
  • Herman Ottó Intézet;
  • Országos Vízügyi Főigazgatóság és a Rideg & Rideg Fish Farm

Danube Day 2018


In 2018, Danube Day events reached tens of thousands of people across Hungary. 

Near Baja, Hungarians and Serbs shared music and friendly rivalry at a joint Hungarian-Serbian Danube Day in Érsekcsanád. The event brought together communities, high-level officials and local government from both sides of the border for a weekend of sport, speeches and traditional fish soup.

The Budapest Danube Children’s Festival found a new home at Budapest Zoo. The fun-filled family day of river themed games, hands-on experiments, crafts and quizzes proved as popular as ever.

Also in the capital, an international conference on plastic pollution was hosted by the EU Interreg Danube Transnational Programme JOINTISZA project. The free event provided a networking platform for those involved in influencing policy, involving technical experts from Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Ukraine and the IUCN. Region-wide measures to tackle pollution were developed for possible inclusion in the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan updates. A ‘trash art’ exhibition ran alongside the event.

Győr’s water-based fun was a hit at the Győrkőc youth festival. As were activities at Gönyű's Danube Day celebration of boats, which included fishing contests, boating, folk dancing and live music.

Further information

To see how all the countries celebrate Danube Day, go to our Events in Countries page. You can also revisit 15 years of Hungarian Danube Day celebrations via the general Review page.

For the latest news, please contact:

Ida Nagyne Sos of the Ministry of Interior on +36 1 441 1795; +36 30 491 2624; ida [dot] sos [dot] nagyneatbm [dot] gov [dot] hu.

For Hungary's Danube Art Master contest, view the Hungarian factsheet or contact Attila Kozák of GWP Hungary on +36 1 3711 333; gwpmoatgwpmo [dot] hu.

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