HeadOnEast Calls to Osijek, and Uplift Opens a New Slavonian Chapter

Summer may be ending at the sea, but the tourist season does not have to end with it. Slavonia and Baranja have two good reasons to travel east this autumn: from October 2 to 4, the HeadOnEast festival returns to Osijek, while Mastercard’s Uplift project – a friend of Croatian cuisine – opens its second chapter precisely in Slavonia and Baranja after Dalmatia.

Both stories were presented today at Bar&Ton RougeMarin in Zagreb, accompanied by the flavors and wines of the region that will be in focus over the coming months. The common denominator is simple: to show that eastern Croatia is not only discovered through sight but also through food, wine, music, people, and experiences that make it worthwhile to stay longer.

Osijek once again becomes the capital of hedonism

HeadOnEast celebrates its eighth edition this year, and Osijek’s Tvrđa will once again shine from October 2 to 4 with light installations accompanying concerts, gastronomy, wine, art, workshops, sports, and local producers, creating a recognizable festival atmosphere.

The musical part of the program will be taken care of by Parni valjak, Silente, IDEM, Fluentes, Electric Corn, and many other performers, along with surprise guests. The program also brings creative, artistic, and sports content for children and adults, including Wine Square, Beercuz, Houses of Light, In da Sofa, Art Meadow, HeadOnQuiz, Vinyl Zone, Bazzar, Essekiraonica, and OSCANS graffiti jam, while part of the activities will once again move to Kopika.

The festival naturally continues the campaign of the Osijek-Baranja County Tourist Board ‘We take you to the sea, you take us to the water,’ inviting guests from the coast to the Drava and Danube after summer vacations.

– 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 arrives precisely in Slavonia and Baranja, at a time when more and more guests are discovering that eastern Croatia offers much more than weekend trips. HeadOnEast is the best way to experience it all at once, through food, wine, music, art, and people. That is why we invite everyone to come to Osijek from October 2 to 4 and discover for themselves why hedonism thrives so well in the east – emphasized Mislav Matišić, director of the Osijek-Baranja County Tourist Board.

Slavonia and Baranja have recorded strong tourist growth in recent years, with Osijek-Baranja County recording 14.8% more tourist overnight stays in 2025 than the previous year, and it also ranked among the ten most hospitable regions in the world according to Booking.com. HeadOnEast was declared the best tourist event in Croatia that same year, confirming that the east is increasingly building its position as a destination that attracts with content, not just seasonality.

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

While HeadOnEast shows how to enjoy in the east, Uplift – a friend of Croatian cuisine goes a step deeper this year and opens the question: which dishes best tell the gastronomic story of Slavonia and Baranja?

This is a Mastercard five-year initiative that focuses on one Croatian region each year, aiming to have leading chefs professionally define, document, and pass on traditional dishes to new generations of chefs. The long-term goal is to create a Manifesto of Croatian cuisine, a collection of dishes, recipes, techniques, and stories that clearly represent different Croatian regions.

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

The working group will be led by chef Marin Medak, and it will include Tomislav Đukić, Goran Kočiš, Marko Alilović, Marko Gajski, and Dario Bionda, with expert assistance from Dino Galvagno and Radovan Marčić. Their task will be to select dishes that best represent the region, analyze traditional recipes and their variations, and define 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 that dish and preserve knowledge that is often passed down orally.

– Slavonia and Baranja have an exceptionally strong gastronomic identity, but true potential only arises when we can clearly define, convey, and present it to guests. That is the essence 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 hospitality and tourism offerings. After Dalmatia, we are coming to a completely different culinary region, and it is precisely that diversity that shows how much Croatia has to offer throughout the year – stated Ema Huskić, marketing manager at Mastercard in Croatia.

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