The Invictus Germany Sports Festival 2024 brought around 250 participants from eight nations to Castello Düsseldorf for the first time since the Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023. With four sports and an accompanying symposium, the focus was on one goal: to raise the profile of veterans and soldiers injured in action in society and to keep the spirit of the Invictus Games alive.
THE SPORTS FESTIVAL
The Invictus Germany Sports Festival 2024 marks the first milestone in sustainability to emerge from the Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023. From 26 to 28 July 2024, the festival took place for the first time at Castello Düsseldorf and demonstrated how sport, community and rehabilitation can work together effectively.
The festival was orchestrated by Invictus Germany, licensed by the Invictus Games Foundation, with support from D.LIVE and the involvement of the German Armed Forces. Over 250 participants from eight nations gathered in Düsseldorf, including specially invited members of the so-called ‘blue light’ organisations.
In addition to sporting competitions in four disciplines – indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, spinning and table tennis – the focus was on an accompanying symposium on rehabilitation and inclusion. Experts from the fields of medicine, politics and civil society exchanged views on best practice models, innovative approaches and the needs of veterans and those injured in service.
Held at Castello Düsseldorf, the festival offered an accessible, modern and central location that provided space for encounters and visibility. It was not only a place to practise sport, but also to experience it: veterans, their families, supporters and the public came together.
The Invictus Germany Sports Festival 2024 had several key objectives:
Creating visibility: Veterans and soldiers with service-related injuries should not be marginalised, but should be visible at the heart of society.
Strengthening connections: Between nations, between service providers and civil society, between veterans and supporters.
Promoting rehabilitation: Through sport, exchange and professionalisation in the area of inclusion and participation.
Laying a foundation: For future events that will continue to carry forward the spirit, values and impact of the Invictus Games.
Participants: approx. 250 participants from eight countries.
Nationalities: Germany, Belgium, Estonia, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA and Ukraine.
Sports: indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, spinning, table tennis.
The 2024 festival is more than a one-off event – it is the starting point for a movement. The Sports Festival fulfils the promise that the Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023 will not end with the last competition, but will form a vibrant and powerful legacy. It paves the way for the Invictus Germany Awards, festival formats and other projects, and shows that the path to placing veterans at the centre of society will be consistently pursued. The 2026 Sports Festival continues this course – once again at Castello Düsseldorf – with renewed diversity, four sports, and space for encounters, rehabilitation and visible recognition.
