A great Calvin and Hobbes strip (almost all of them are great, but this one is really exceptional) shows the main characters chilling on a meadow under an intense blue summer sky, with Hobbes commenting that the sky looks really pretty, when Calvin suddenly declares that it “is too blue” and that it “needs some red”. He runs to fetch a kite, he lets it fly – and the sky is better.
The magical Floating Castle Festival is a sky – a universe! – of music, art, performances, and workshops, sprawling over the meadows and under the old chestnut and linden trees guarding the majestically cute Castle Snežnik.
And we thought this intense sky of arts and culture is almost perfect – it just needs more colour … that is, more kites.
Luckily the organizers of the Floating Castle Festival 2025 thought the same, and invited us to be a part of the Little Butale workshop programme.
To be honest, this article was started, deleted, and started again a couple of times, and that’s why it is published rather late. While the story is simple and not really unique – there was a music, arts, and crafts festival, we were there doing one of our typical giant rolling never-ending kite workshop with truckloads of kids and their parents, and the kites were gracing the sky (and the trees) – every time the writing crashed into the same block:
the Floating Castle Festival itself.
Castle Snežnik with its sprawling grounds is beautiful, pristine, majestic .. but remote and lonely, as it is tucked away into one of more remote karst poljes in Slovenia, the valley of Lož. On a good day it’s a well over an hour’s ride from Ljubljana – and there are no good days during the summer, thenwhen the highways turn into parking lots for crazed people screaming “Adriático o muerte!” …
Apart from the really exceptional nature – people who guide visitors to see bears in their natural environment have a “you don’t see a bear – you don’t have to pay” policy here – there is not much to see or do; the remote valley is quiet and serene, the villages small and rustic, the vibes subdued.
So bringing a huge multi-day festival with music, arts, crafts, performances, and whatnot here seems like a crazy idea. Yet while the idea definitely is crazy, it also works. It works wayyy better than one would expect.
4 days. 21 stages. 250 concerts. More than 400 artists from all over the world. Performances, workshops, events for kids. Delights for the eyes, the ears, and the palate. Thousands of visitors from families with toddlers to hardcore bikers to starry-eyed hippies, from local villagers to travellers from afar – camping, dancing, creating, making friends and love, getting crazy, having fun, sleeping, jumping, running around …
The word amazing doesn’t come close to describing the whole incredible happening. There are few places in the world having this kind of vibes.
Put the Floating Caste Festival 2026 in your calendar. Now.
We were told the festival is huge, so we felt we should come there in force … Two cars, loads of kite making stuff, five eager kiters ready to teach hundreds of kids how to make a kite.
And then we performed the classic Ten Little Indians – ok, Five Little Kiters – nursery rhyme …
First Gregor realized that he was to return from a long trip to Indonesia less than one day before our appointment with the castle, and would probably be too tired. This little kiter went to Indonesia, and then there were four.
Then Ivor was informed that he and his family booked an apartment of the sunny coast of Croatia months ago, right over the weekend of the workshop. This little kiter went to the seaside, and then there were three.
Then Janez got a notice that his employer needs him to do some crucial work on that Saturday. This little kiter went to work, and then there were two.
And then on the eve before the workshop Timotej got a notice from his gut that something is really wrong and he’d have to stay at home. This little kiter went to the toilet, and then there was one.
We were about to cancel the whole thing – and then there were none – but Gregor valiantly overcame the jetlag and exhaustion, and sacrificed his old, tired body for the kids. It’s all about the kids, right!
We drove over the mountains as the highway turned into a parking lot, arrived half an hour late – and were greeted by probably the most impeccable organisation ever. Here is the ID badge, here are lunch tokens, leave the baggage there it will be carried to the place, park over there, enjoy!
Like clockwork.
And more – we were assigned a volunteer! You see, in our rolling, never-ending, chaotic kite workshops one experienced kite maker can handle up to six kids simultaneously, and two kiters can manage perhaps fifteen little brats.
When we reached the nicely arranged workshop spot – tables, benches, crayons – in a deep shade beside the castle, some twenty kids turned their big eyes upon us and said in unison:
“Can I make a kite, mister?”
Yes. Yes, of course.
Without Damjan the Volunteer – who had never made a kite before, but is a fast learner and was comfortably handling six kids all by himself after some fifteen minutes of observing – we’d drop dead before noon. With him we dropped dead at half past three in the afternoon, after four and a half hours of breathless kite making berserkness.
A bowl of delicious chilli con carne and a cold radler revived us, and we were ready for the afternoon session.
Alja intervened at half past six, saying the workshop is done. And all we could do was to ask feebly: “Why? We still have some material!”
Alas, when the boss declares it’s over, it is over. We looked around for the first time in hours, and wherever our gaze wandered, there was at least one kid running around with a colourful kite flying above them.
It was beautiful.
We won.
We can’t really show you the full extent of the workshop, the happy kids running around with kites, the whole vibe of thousands of people listening to music, chillaxing in the serene park, the vibe of the Floating Castle Festival. We simply didn’t have either the time or energy to take photos.
But it was a vibe kites matched perfectly.
More than 150 kites were floating in the sky above the floating castle. And the whole place was beaming with joy, with exhilaration, with the simple beauty of kites colouring the sky.
We are proud.
And we look forward to doing it again at the Floating Castle Festival 2026. Be there!
Big thanks to the organizers, enthusiasts, and volunteers who made this incredible event possible; to Matija, Larisa, and Alja for the invitation, to Damjan – we couldn’t have made it without you! – to all the artists and performers, to all the visitors – and of course to all the kids that made a kite by themselves.
See you next year! 🙂
As always – it.s a great pleasure to read your Stories. I.d like to join the festival 26 or workshop – but: it.s a long way to go to Slovenia 🤔
Enjoy the kite-summer!
Thank you, Ulli! Hope you will make it 😉