Danube Music Days Bratislava

Danube Music Days 2025 will take place on 27-28 June 2025 at Yuzu House in Bratislava, Slovakia. This two-day urban music festival offers a varied programme with more than 20 live acts and DJs on two stages, featuring genres such as electronic music, indie, downtempo, trip hop, deep house and techno. In addition to music, there will also be a lecture and screening about Vietnam, discussions, a travel cinema, a workshop and an exhibition. A guide to a weekend well spent.

🎶 Line up:

Booka Shade live act (DE)
Kraak and Smaak DJ set (NL)
Jazzanova DJ set (DE)
Autumnist feat Nina Kohout live (SVK)
Kiiōtō feat Lou Rhodes live (GB)
Gold Panda live (GB)
Lewis Fautzi DJ set (PT)
Kris Krimm (SVK)
Subtension live (SVK)
Gabanna (SVK)
Ke3n (SVK)
Yanko Kral (SVK)
Beyuz (SVK)
VI3e (SVK
and many more…

🥳 Accompanying program:

– interesting discussions
– travel screening
– tea workshop
– quality gastronomy

The second day of the Danube Music Days festival, we will open with a tea workshop – this ritual is an important aspect of social life in Japan and other Asian countries.

We will also talk about Japan with host and co-organiser Marian Jakubis, who will guide us through the nooks and crannies of local culture and customs.

Daniel Hevier, a well-known Petržalka resident, has also accepted an invitation to the festival, and his son Daniel Jr. will discuss the music he loves and the lyrics he composed that still resonate with listeners.

How to write about music and what good music journalism is worth watching will be discussed by Peter Faun Dolník (Rádio_FM – main media partner) and Daniel Hevier Jr. (editor-in-chief of MusicPress.sk magazine)

🌿 Venue and atmosphere:

The venue is located on the picturesque embankment of the Danube River in Petržalka and offers a relaxed, natural atmosphere just a few minutes away from the city centre. Located on Klokočovská Street in Bratislava’s Petržalka district, Yuzu House offers a unique combination of urban infrastructure and natural surroundings. The venue has a spacious outdoor area along the Danube River, providing the perfect setting for music lovers to enjoy performances in a relaxed atmosphere.

Other information:

It’s unbelievable, but after more than twenty years of existence, the legendary German duo Booka Shade, consisting of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier, will come to Bratislava for the first time ever. With their live act, in which they mix elements of tech-house, house music, and minimal music, they will get the audience dancing at Danube Music Days 2025. They started making music in the 1990s and quickly penetrated not only the electronic music community but also the mainstream. It is no coincidence that they have been featured in various charts defining electronic music, such as DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJ List. Legendary British DJ and presenter Pete Tong inducted them into the BBC Hall of Fame.

Last year, they filled MMC with a live band, and now one of the founders of Kraak & Smaak, Wim Plug, will showcase his DJ skills at the Danube Music Days festival. Together with Oscar de Jong and Mark Kneppers, he forms a trio of producers who have become famous for combining dance beats with live funky music. Six albums (the seventh is currently in the works) and numerous remixes for stars such as Jamiroquai, Solomun, and Royksopp have helped them build a large fan base around the world. Wim Plug is also sought after as a solo DJ, as his sets combine quality dramaturgy, precise and surprising mixes, and the unmistakable Kraak & Smaak groove.

The chillout character of the program will also be enriched by Alex Barck from the cult German collective Jazzanova, known for his tasteful combination of nu-jazz, broken beat, downtempo, deep house, and soul influences. Under Jazzanova, DJ set will represent the entire band in a two-hour set, which will bring a pulsating selection from their extensive work and music that inspires Alex. Alex Barck is a respected figure on the Berlin electronic scene – as co-founder of the Sonar Kollektiv label and a long-time selector with a feel for groove, he regularly performs around the world. rhythmic and emotional pulse of the night.

One of Gold Panda’s greatest achievements has been to transcend the genres he has often been pigeonholed into, such as “chill wave, dubstep, post-dubstep.” His 2010 debut album Lucky Shiner gained international acclaim. As he himself says, he has always tried to avoid dating his music with trendy sounds that can quickly become obsolete. His latest album, The Work, is the result of his many years of work and musical development, which is not just a reflection of the last five years, but rather the result of what Gold Panda has been creating.

Hardcore fans will be delighted by Portuguese DJ Lewis Fautzi. He continues the quality established by Branko on the Portuguese scene. Fautzi has earned respect and status not only on the domestic scene, but also on the international underground techno scene with his dark, hypnotic, and futuristic productions. His work has been released on prestigious labels such as Soma Records, Figure (Len Faki’s label) and PoleGroup, with his debut album The Gare Album (2014) bringing him international attention. He founded his own label, Faut Section, where he supports young talent and presents his vision of quality techno. He has played at Berghain and at the power station at the Inota festival.

Kiiōtō’s debut album, As Dust We Rise, was born out of an unexpected collaboration between Lou Rhodes, Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter and founding member of Lamb, and multi-platinum composer and keyboardist Rohan Heath. As Dust We Rise embodies a spirit of constant discovery and exploration, drawing on their shared roots in the Manchester music scene of the 1990s, even though they have only met twice. The album is characterized by the harmony between Heath’s piano and Lou’s elegiac voice.

The performance by renowned Austrian percussionist and hadpan pioneer Manu Delaga, who has collaborated with such names as Björk, Anoushka Shankar, and The Cinematic Orchestra, will also have a meditative character. He has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, and his work combines electronics, acoustic music, and environmental messages. In the Parasol Peak project, he combined music with mountaineering, and during the ReCycling Tour, he completed a concert tour on a bicycle. At the festival, he will present his latest project, Snow from Yesterday, created in collaboration with the vocal trio Mad About Lemon.

Autumnist is unlike anything else you can hear from Slovak music. The six-member band led by founder Vlado Ďurajka and Mišo Turzík (their publisher from Deadred Records) crosses genres (downtempo, triphop, breakbeat), offering contemporary electronic music with references to the past. They work on organic sound and compact expression. As one of the few Slovak bands to have made an impact abroad (Eurosonic Noordeslag, SXSW, Sziget, Pohoda, Colours of Ostrava), they have complemented the atmosphere at concerts by Cinematic Orchestra, Mouse on Mars and Coldcut. The band collaborates with Nina Kohout, who will also join them at the festival.

What happens when a trained pianist – Kristína Smetanová – starts making electropop? The result is Kriss Krim. Energetic and thoughtful compositions, her voice and arranging skills, which she also uses when playing in the band Quatro Emocionem or collaborating with artists such as Richard Müller, Katarzia, and Tolstoys. Together with Martin Krajčír, alias Isobutane, they received this year’s DOSKA 2025 award for stage music for the play, and they will bring that energy to life together.

From the domestic scene, the performance of Mário Dočekal, alias Subtension, will certainly be an experience. With his new album Bun After Writing (Gergaz), he has taken his expression to new dimensions. Although most of the electronic scene has him fixed in the drum and bass genre, his new compositions combine elements of IDM, techno, ambient, and funk. In the end, however, there is still an honest dance beat that embodies his work and personal transformation.

He has written several of Gleb’s hits and is also his concert DJ – this is how we could briefly introduce one of the most promising Slovak producers, VI3E. Immersed in the genres of UK Bass / Bass House / UK Garage, he brings the best of the British club scene to the Slovak scene. Dark beats that are an intersection of melodic lines and progressive work with electronic sounds.

The best of his work is presented by LFO (Laboratory of Frequency Oscillation) – a partner of the festival. In addition to Mário Dočekal / Subtension, there will be Gabanna, KE3N, Yanko Kral, Beyuz, Samuel Konrad, and their graduates and students will also perform.

High-quality food, drinks, and an accompanying program in the form of travel lectures, workshops, interviews with personalities, an introduction to Asian tea culture, yoga, screenings, an exhibition, and a program for children. Come and enjoy the Zen-like atmosphere with friends and support a new culture on the Danube embankment. The limited capacity invites you to relax and unwind.

Location: YUZU House, Petržalka, Bratislava
Date: 27. – 28. 06.2025
Time: from 17:00 – 3:00
Entry: 49 – 99 €

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