From sea to water: HeadOnEast calls Osijek, and Uplift opens a new Slavonia-Baranja chapter

Summer may be ending at the seaside, but the tourist season doesn't have to end with it.

Slavonia and Baranja have two good reasons to head east this autumn: from October 2 to 4 The festival is returning to Osijek Headoneast, while Mastercard's project Uplift - a friend of Croatian cuisine After Dalmatia, it opens its second chapter precisely in Slavonia and Baranja.

Both stories are presented today at Bar&Ton RougeMarin in Zagreb, along with the flavors and wines of the region that will be in focus in the coming months. The common denominator is simple: to show that eastern Croatia is not only revealed through sight, but also through food, wine, music, people and experiences that make it worth staying longer.

Osijek becomes the capital of hedonism again at the beginning of October

Headoneast This year it celebrates its eighth edition, and from October 2nd to 4th, Osijek's Tvrđa will once again shine in light installations accompanied by concerts, gastronomy, wine, art, workshops, sports and local producers, creating a recognizable festival atmosphere. 

The musical part of the program will be provided by Parni valjak, Silente, IDEM, Fluentes, Electric Corn and numerous other performers, along with surprise guests. The program also brings creative, artistic and sports activities for children and adults, including Vinski trg, Beercuz, Kuće svjetla, In da Sofa, Art livada, HeadOnKviz, Zona vinila, Bazzar, Essekiraonica and OSCANS graffiti jam, while some of the activities will move back to Kopika.

The festival naturally continues the campaign of the Osijek-Baranja County Tourist Board "We'll take you to the sea, you'll take us to the water", with which Slavonia and Baranja invite guests from the coast to the Drava and Danube after their summer holidays.

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Slavonia and Baranja have been recording strong tourism growth in recent years, with Osijek-Baranja County recording 14,8% more tourist overnight stays in 2025 than the year before, and also being among the ten most hospitable regions in the world according to Booking.com. HeadOnEast was declared the best tourism event in Croatia in the same year, confirming that the East is increasingly building its position as a destination that attracts with content, not just seasonality.

"The Uplift project - a friend of Croatian cuisine, seems to have recognized our call "from the sea to the water" even before we sent it. After Dalmatia, it is arriving in Slavonia and Baranja, at a time when more and more guests are discovering that eastern Croatia offers much more than a weekend trip. HeadOnEast is the best way to experience it all at once, through food, wine, music, art and people. That's why we invite everyone to come to Osijek from October 2nd to 4th and discover for themselves why hedonism is doing so well in the east.", he pointed out Mislav Matisic, Director of the Osijek-Baranja County Tourist Board.

After Dalmatia, Uplift arrives among river fish, stews and wines from the Danube

While HeadOnEast shows how to have fun in the East, Uplift - a friend of Croatian cuisine This year it goes a step deeper and raises the question: which dishes best tell the gastronomic story of Slavonia and Baranja?

It's about Mastercard's five-year initiative which focuses on one Croatian region each year, with the aim of expertly defining, documenting and passing on traditional dishes to new generations of cooks through the work of leading chefs. The long-term goal is to create a Manifesto of Croatian Cuisine, a collection of dishes, recipes, techniques and stories that clearly represent the different Croatian regions.

The first season was dedicated to Dalmatia, where six dishes were defined that form the backbone of its culinary identity: black risotto, fish soup, marinated blue fish, brudet, grilled fish and Swiss chard, and pašticada with gnocchi, for which video recipes can be found on priceless.com/uplift.

Now the same process begins in Slavonia and Baranja.

The working group will be led by the chef Marin Medak, and it will do it Tomislav Djukic, Goran Kocis, Marko Alilovic, Marko Gajski and Dario Bionda, with professional help Dino Galvagna and Radovan Marčić. Their task will be to select dishes that best represent the region, analyze traditional recipes and their variations, and define the key ingredients, techniques, and characteristics that make them authentic.

The goal is not to prescribe a single way of cooking or limit the creativity of chefs, but to document what makes a dish exactly that dish and preserve knowledge that is often passed down orally.

"Slavonia and Baranja have an exceptionally strong gastronomic identity, but the real potential only emerges when we know how to clearly define it, convey it and present it to guests. This is precisely the point of this project. We do not want to reduce Croatian cuisine to a list of recipes, but to preserve the knowledge, people and stories behind them and turn them into a concrete tool for the development of caterers and the tourist offer. After Dalmatia, we come to a completely different culinary region, and it is precisely this diversity that shows how much Croatia has to offer throughout the year.", she stated Ema Huskic, Marketing Manager at Mastercard in Croatia.

The work of the expert group will be followed by educational masterclasses for professional chefs.  The competition for which will be open in mid-November, and at which members of the working group will share their knowledge about selected dishes and their preparation techniques. Thus, the story that began last year on the Adriatic continues this fall along the Drava and Danube.