Steel & Chill 2026 returns to Daruvar with expanded HEMA events

Steel & Chill is coming back to Count Janković Castle in Daruvar, Croatia, with a six-category HEMA slate and a €50 registration fee. The two-day event runs June 27-28 and leans into a looser weekend feel, promising prizes, surprises and a competition centered on fun, respect and community rather than the grind of a one-and-done bracket.

The 2026 line-up is built to widen the field without flattening it. Open longsword is split into Tier A and Tier B, and the schedule also includes women’s longsword, open sidesword, women’s sidesword and open sword and buckler. That structure matters because it gives experienced fighters a place to push hard while also giving other divisions room to stand on their own, instead of packing everyone into one oversized lane.

Steel & Chill is also returning, not debuting, and that history is part of the draw. The event page says registrations open March 1, 2026, and its site includes separate pages for schedule, registration, rules, equipment requirements and location, all pointing to the same castle setting at Ulica Ivana Gundulića 1 in Daruvar. The organizers are clearly pitching the weekend as an atmosphere as much as a tournament: serious bouts, but enough breathing room for fighters to stay, talk and enjoy the setting between matches.

That formula has already produced real turnout. HEMA Ratings lists the 2025 edition with 62 fighters, while Steel & Chill III in 2024 drew 52 fighters and logged 104 fights in mixed steel longsword alone. That same 2024 event also featured mixed steel single sidesword, mixed steel arming sword and buckler, and women’s steel longsword divisions, which shows Daruvar has been building a repeatable competitive core rather than staging a one-off showcase.

For a regional event in a crowded summer calendar, that mix is the point. A castle venue, a relaxed tone and a division structure that splits longsword into two tiers give Steel & Chill a different pitch from the high-pressure weekend where everything rides on a single bracket. The photos from previous years on the event’s Facebook page underline the same thing: this is a returning stop with its own identity, and it is trying to keep that identity without losing the competitive edge that keeps fighters coming back.