The creative festival “Dysarium 2026”, which the organisers describe as Ukraine’s largest creative festival, took place in Lviv on 24–25 October. The event brought together over 5,000 participants offline and made it possible to raise around UAH 1,130,000 for charity.
Over two days, 80 Ukrainian and international speakers took to four parallel stages. They shared their experience in design, creativity, artificial intelligence, SMM, strategy and marketing. Among the participants were representatives of companies and projects such as Wix, “Diia”, Uklon, Base Design, SNASK, Spiilka and others.
The CEO of the “Pryvit” restaurant group, Mykhailo Katsurin, made his debut on the main stage, speaking about creating creative projects in the restaurant business. Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Tetiana Berezhna, spoke about how to turn creative ideas into a business and attract initial investment. The Diia team presented the behind-the-scenes workings of a major brand and shared tips on generating creative solutions.
A separate strand of the festival was a series of book launches. Authors, editors and publishers presented their titles, and visitors could buy signed copies. Nastichka Zherebetska and Volodymyr Smyrnov presented the seventh issue of the “Chronicle of Ukrainian Design” and sold out a test print run of 100 copies in just an hour. The first batch of Oleksandr Trehub’s book “The Kazan Method” sold out as early as Saturday, so the Projector Publishing team spent the night delivering additional copies at visitors’ request.
“We see posts on social media saying that Dysarium is a place to meet those you’ve not been able to see for ages. It’s the same for us: every year we see familiar faces, we see how the creative community is growing and how genuinely happy people are just to be next to one another. Our team is glad to be creating a place where everyone feels they belong,” says Yuliana Savruk, co-founder of Dysarium.
A design battle was held as part of the festival. Its participants developed a platform to introduce audiences to the “Posipaky” UAV interceptor special unit and tell its story in simple language. The task was to create a solution that would ensure users remember the unit. After two hours of competition, two entries made it to the final and shared the main prize of 1,000 euros between them.
The charitable component was a key part of “Dysarium 2026”. The festival hosted several activities to raise funds for ground robotic systems for the “Come Back Alive” foundation, as well as additional fundraising for the “Azov”, “Burevii”, “Da Vinci Wolves”, the Marine Corps and other units. In total, around UAH 1,130,000 was raised over the two days.
Representatives of brigades and charitable foundations were present on site with their own merchandise, interactive formats and educational activities. Visitors could learn more about the units and support them with donations. The main fundraising campaign for ground robotic systems, run by the youth organisation “Tvory”, is ongoing, and the Dysarium page is planning a prize draw with gifts from partners in its support.
Next to the stages was the Dysarium Market — a market of Ukrainian brands selected by the festival team. This year, 23 brands presented their products, including Malevich, Poetry Home, ArtHuss, SVOЄRIDNI, “KvitneVdoma”, Gushka, Hotmamas, “Vavylonska Biblioteka”, “DUKHMJAN” and others. In partner zones, participants could engage with companies; in particular, the Ukrainian defence technology company Skyfall showcased its P1-Sun drone.
The organisers announced that Dysarium is expanding its ecosystem and launching the Dysarium Awards — an award for creatives and creative teams. The award categories have already been defined, and the team is now working on securing funding. They promise to share details on the Dysarium Instagram page.