Pop Messe is a music festival that follows up on Brno’s trade fair tradition as well as focus on education, new technology and innovation. The line-up is primarily (not only though) young, multi-genre music that goes beyond the established concept of POP. The two day long event will take place between the 24th and 25th of July in Brno’s football stadium and Bobycentrum. Pop Messe’s ambition is to become a unique cultural platform with high artistic potential in a dynamic South Moravian metropolis.
The Prague Spring International Music Festival is a permanent showcase for outstanding performing artists, symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles of the world.
Rock for People (RfP) is one of the largest open-air summer music festivals in the Czech Republic. The festival began in 1995 in the town Český Brod, and in 2007 it was moved to an unused airport in Hradec Králové. The festival features Czech and international acts of various genres, most prominently alternative rock, pop rock, punk rock, and EDM, and has also featured various workshops and recreational activities. Headlining acts have included Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, the Offspring, the Killers, Paramore, and Massive Attack.
During the two days of the festival, the city becomes a music center and as such introduces its visitors to jazz as originally non-European genre, which, however, has conquered all major musical stages in the world since its inception. In Slaný, top Czech and foreign musicians introduce themselves to the audience. The festival is intended not only for fans of jazz art, but also for the general public. The festival begins with the opening of the gates of the Grand City Center and the chapel of the Museum of National History in Slaný. Then begins a show of concerts with quality jazz, blues, soul, funky and other similarly tuned music, which can inspire both professionals and the lay music public every year.
The Smetana’s Litomyšl festival is the second oldest music festival in the Czech Republic, and at the same time it is among the largest regular classical music festivals held in the country.
It mainly features opera performances and concerts, as well as gala concerts, oratorios, cantatas and song evenings; that is forms in which vocal artistry dominates. However symphonic, instrumental and chamber music are not ignored and in the venues here there are ballet performances and church music as well as promenade concerts and other genres. Every year at the festival practically all the top Czech interpreters perform, the three national theatres, all the significant orchestras and choirs and the best conductors, soloists and instrumentalists. And even though there are many significant foreign guests (among others Katia Ricciarelli, Sherill Milnes, Bernd Weikl, Kurt Rydl, Sergej Larin, Neil Shicoff, Torsten Kerl, Sumi Jo, Kate Royal, Marcello Giordani, Thomas Hampson, Oksana Dyka ...) Smetana’s Litomyšl has retained its Czech character and so is truly a national festival.
The centre of the festival is the wonderful Litomyšl State Castle, which in 1999 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The main events are held mostly in the acoustically excellently prepared second courtyard with its unique retractable roof, as well as in the castle riding hall, in Litomyšl’s churches, in the Smetana Hall and regularly in selected places in the Pardubice region.
A visit to Smetana’s Litomyšl is no ordinary occasion, as aside from the interesting dramaturgy and the brilliant performances it offers a chance to stay away from the metropolitan hustle and bustle in a place with its own unique spirit.
The international interdisciplinary festival SMETANOVSKÉ DNY, which belongs to the calendar of the most important cultural events in Pilsen for more than thirty years, represents tradition and the certainty that there are still lasting values that can be relied on. For music and art lovers in general, it is a real holiday that brings extraordinary experiences every year. In the top performance of important ensembles and leading performers of our and foreign scene, listeners can listen to well-known masterpieces in traditional and new contexts, as well as musical novelties. The interdisciplinarity, which stood at the very beginning of the festival in the form of a scientific symposium devoted to the issues of Czech culture of the 19th century, is maintained. Within the cultural context, the festival is rare in that it connects the world of music with the world of science, philosophy, literature, fine arts, theater and film. An integral part of the festival is also the involvement of Pilsen artists and performers.
