Festivals & events in Prague

Many visitors to Prague say they like it best in winter: despite the short, grey days and long, cold months, it's a mellow kind of season, with endless traditions and plenty of ways to warm up. Still, the coming of spring is a truly joyous event in Prague, and Czechs know, almost to the day, when each new blossom will appear.

They also plan their favourite summer weekend with 12 sets of friends months in advance, hunt down the mushrooms of autumn with alacrity, and never miss a St Nicholas's Eve street party when winter rolls around again.

It's a different city with each season. Prague's crowning glory, though, is its calender of musical events, the highlight of which is the inimitable Pražské jaro (Prague Spring).

When to go

Spring

In April and May, people seem to blossom with the lilacs and chestnut trees, and emerge like moles into the sunlight; beer gardens fill up even when the crowd is shivering at dusk. Off come the layers as Stromovka park fills with runners, in training for the Prague International Marathon. Soon after that, the Prague Spring Festival heralds the warm weather, as it has done for half a century.

Summer

With the hot days of June and July, locals (including the staff of most cultural institutions, which go dark until September) tend to clear out to avoid the flood of tourists and head for the country. If you can get an invitation, you may get to experience the joy of the chata (cottage) and blueberry picking. The city bears its own sweet fruit during the summer months, though, with music festivals such as the hip United Islands of Prague and the Tanec Praha modern dance performances.

Winter

Miserable though winter can be, it has its own rewards: the glorious spires that tower above Staré Město, Old Town, are an incomparable sight in the snow. The city may be a sleepy, grog-guzzling, grey and melancholy place, but its Christmas markets are enchanting. And, once the carp have been bashed into submission at the fishmongers' stands for the traditional festive supper, fireworks have people diving for cover in the same square on New Year's Eve.

Autumn

In autumn, symphonies, operas and balls return to town. With them comes Prague Autumn, and not a little of the sneak-attack libation known as burčák. And, of course, with the tourists finally gone, Prague's citizens get their beautiful city back to themselves, just as it begins to fill with ice and smog.

Critic's choice

Pálení čarodźjnic (Witches' Night)

When: 30 Apr
A tradition that rolls the best of Halloween and Bonfire Night into one package, Pálení čarodějnic marks the death of winter and the birth of the new spring. Bonfires are lit to purge the winter spirits, an effigy of a hag is burn – a relic of real witch hunts – and the more daring observers of the custom leap over the flames. Most fires are lit in the countryside, but there's sometimes a pyre in the city: check Petřín Hill in Malá Strana.

Prague International Marathon

Where: throughout the city, route varies
When: May
Tel/website: 224 919 209/www.pim.cz
This event has a new owner and corporate sponsors aplenty; entry fees have more than tripled for the main event in this massive annual run, which draws hundreds of marathon addicts from around the world. Lots of shorter events are held at other times in the year.

Festival spisovatelů Praha (Prague Writers' Festival)

Where: various venues
When: May/June
Tel/website: 224 931 053/www.pwf.cz
An impressive collection of Czech and international literati gathers in Prague to read extracts from their latest works, hobnob and compare royalty contracts. This is your chance to observe Ivan Klíma's improbable hairdo and spot the quirks of other local literary lions at close range.

Pražské jaro (Prague Spring)

Where: various venues
When: mid May-early June
Website: www.festival.cz
Arguably the cultural highlight of the year, Prague Spring is still the heavyweight among local music festivals. It's had a stronger international flavour since the Velvet Revolution, and attracts first-class international performers such as violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Garrick Ohlsson. The festival typically opens with Má Vlast (My Country), Smetana's patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, and concludes with Beethoven's Ninth. However, it's also kept up with the times, expanding its parameters in recent years to include contemporary musicians such as jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and young sitar star Anoushka Shankar.

Many of the big events sell out quickly; it's best to get tickets from the festival office rather than from ticket agencies, which add a mark-up. The office opens a month before the festival, and there are two price ranges: one for tickets sold in Prague and one for those booked from abroad.

United Islands of Prague

Where: various venues
When: June
Website: www.unitedislands.cz
Concerts and beer stands take over the Vltava riverfront; performers include musicians local and global, and names as big as Iggy Pop and Placebo.

Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)

Where: various venues
When: July
Website: www.kviff.cz
Held in the West Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary, this is the only film festival in the country accredited by the FIAPF, the organisation that sanctions the Cannes, Berlin and Venice festivals. But unlike those festivals, the Karlovy Vary event is skewed towards audiences, offering thousands the chance to see films otherwise impossible to catch over here. High-profile guests have included Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and Elijah Wood, but the real joy is in the gathering of indie film-makers. Many films sell out, but if space allows they'll fit you in. Note that tickets can only be bought on site and only go on sale a day before the screening.

Pražsky podzim (Prague Autumn)

When: Sept-Oct
Website: www.pragueautumn.cz
Prague Autumn seems to be gaining on its bigger brother, with an increasingly diverse programme and headliners from the Bamberger Symphony to the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

St Nicholas's Eve

Where: around Charles Bridge & Staroměstské náměstí, Staré Město, Prague 1
When: 5 Dec
Grown men spend the evening wearing frocks, drinking beer and terrorising small children. They wander the streets in threes, dressed up as St Nicholas, an angel and a devil, symbolising confession, reward and punishment. Rather than a red cloak, St Nicholas usually sports a long white vestment, with a white mitre and staff; the angel hands out sweets to children who have been good, and the devil is on hand to dispense rough justice to those who haven't.

Spring

Matejská pouť (St Matthew's Fair)

Where: Výstaviště, Holešovice, Prague 7
When: Feb-Mar
Tel: 220 103 204
St Matthew's Fair marks the arrival of warm weather with cheesy rides for children at a run-down funfair at Prague's exhibition grounds, Výstaviště. Dodgem cars at 10 Kč a pop and the Ferris wheel bring out the juvenile in everyone.

Dnů evropského filmu (Days of European Film)

When: early Mar
Tel/website: 224 215 538/www.eurofilmfest.cz
More than a decade old, this approximately ten-day festival displays films from European Union members and candidates in Lucerna and Aero. Many of the offerings have English subtitles, and a number of film-makers come to introduce their works. A few of the films have gone into local distribution, but most are just screened once or twice.

One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

When: early spring
Website: www.oneworld.cz
This popular festival of documentaries and features focusing on human rights issues has grown bigger and stronger than ever. Talks and interviews have been added and programming includes some hot new work each year on timely topics – the struggle of small Eastern European countries for viability, say. The venues are spread out, but usually at least one of the theatres has films in English or with English subtitles.

Easter

When: Mar/Apr
Men rush around the country beating women on the backside with willow sticks; women respond by dousing the men with cold water, and by giving them painted eggs. Then everyone drinks a lot. This ancient fertility rite is rarely seen in Prague these days, but painted eggs and willow sticks (pomlázka) are on sale all over the city.

Česká tanečni platforma (Czech Dance Platform)

Where: various venues
When: Apr
Tel/website: 224 817 886/www.divadloponec.cz
Now into its second decade, Czech Dance Platform collects the best in Czech and Slovak dance and movement theatre every spring. Events take place in venues across town.

Pálení čarodźjnic (Witches' Night)

When: 30 Apr
A tradition that rolls the best of Halloween and Bonfire Night into one package, Pálení čarodějnic marks the death of winter and the birth of the new spring. Bonfires are lit to purge the winter spirits, an effigy of a hag is burnt – a relic of real witch hunts – and the more daring observers of the custom leap over the flames. Most fires are lit in the countryside, but there's sometimes a pyre in the city: check Petřín Hill in Malá Strana.

Labour Day

When: 1 May
There's little danger of being run over by a tank in Wenceslas Square these days, but May Day is still a good excuse for a demonstration. The communists, in an attempt to keep the faith alive, usually have a small rally in Letná park and encourage pensioners to moan about the rigours of the free market. Prague's anarchists also sometimes hold an uncharacteristically orderly parade.

May Day

Where: Petřín Hill, Malá Strana, Prague 1
When: 1 May
Czech lovers of all ages, their sap rising, make a pilgrimage to the statue of Karel Hynek Mácha on Petřín Hill, to deposit bunches of flowers and have a snog. Mácha, a 19th-century Romantic poet, generated many myths, several bastards and the epic poem Máj ('May'); it's actually a melancholy tale of unrequited love, but nobody lets that spoil the fun.

VE Day

When: 8 May
The Day of Liberation from fascism is actually 9 May, which was the day when the Red Army reached Prague in 1945. In its eagerness to be a good European nation, however, the Czech government moved the celebration to 8 May in line with the rest of the Continent. In commemoration, flowers and wreaths are laid on Soviet monuments such as Náměstí Kinský in Smíchov, where a Soviet tank used to stand.

Prague Biennale

When: May-Jul 2009, 2011
Website: www.praguebiennale.org
The organisers of the low-budget 'underdog' biennale – the editors of Italian art magazine Flash Art International – held their first biennale in 2003. They bring scads of fresh art to the city.

Khamoro

Where: various venues
When: May
Tel/website: 222 518 554/www.khamoro.cz
A festival that features concerts, seminars and workshops on Roma culture, focusing on the traditional side of Gypsy music, customs and art. The concerts, which are the biggest draw for visitors, run a surprisingly wide gamut from swing guitar jams to a Hungarian all-violin Roma orchestra.

Prague International Marathon

Where: throughout the city, route varies
When: May
Tel/website: 224 919 209/www.pim.cz
This event has a new owner and corporate sponsors aplenty; entry fees have more than tripled for the main event in this massive annual run, which draws hundreds of marathon addicts from around the world. Lots of shorter events are held at other times in the year.

Festival spisovatelů Praha (Prague Writers' Festival)

Where: various venues
When: May/June
Tel/website: 224 931 053/www.pwf.cz
An impressive collection of Czech and international literati gathers in Prague to read extracts from their latest works, hobnob and compare royalty contracts. This is your chance to observe Ivan Klíma's improbable hairdo and spot the quirks of other local literary lions at close range.

Mezi ploty

Where: Ústavní 91, nr Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital, Prague 8
When: last wknd in May
Tel/website: 272 730 623/www.meziploty.cz
A unique festival, Mezi ploty brings together professional, amateur and mentally or physically disadvantaged artists, dancers and musicians for two days of events and performances in the grounds of the city's main psychiatric hospital.

Pražské jaro (Prague Spring)

Where: various venues
When: mid May-early June
Website: www.festival.cz
Arguably the cultural highlight of the year, and now into its seventh decade, Prague Spring is still the heavyweight among local music festivals. It's had a stronger international flavour since the Velvet Revolution, and attracts first-class international performers such as violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Garrick Ohlsson. The festival typically opens with Má Vlast (My Country), Smetana's patriotic cycle of symphonic poems, and concludes with Beethoven's Ninth. However, it's also kept up with the times, expanding its parameters in recent years to include contemporary musicians such as jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and young sitar star Anoushka Shankar.

Many of the big events sell out quickly; it's best to get tickets from the festival office rather than from ticket agencies, which add a mark-up. The office opens a month before the festival, and there are two price ranges: one for tickets sold in Prague and onefor those booked from abroad.

Summer

Prague Fringe

Where: various venues
When: June
Website: www.praguefringe.com
The city's newest theatre festival combines the best of Czech and international companies in a host of standard and unusual venues, and has now expanded into comedy nights in November and December. Any company is welcome to apply, so the result is an unpredictable cocktail – anything from cabaret to multimedia. There are some English language productions and a full English programme.

International Triennale of Contemporary Art

Where: the Veletržní palác
When: June to Sept 2011, 2014
The 'establishment' art festival, now a triennale, hosted by the National Gallery. It draws financial support from state coffers and also aims for a more polished look, in the soaring but sterile spaces of Veletržní palác.

9 Bran (Nine Gates)

Where: various venues
When: June
Website: www.9bran.cz
Nine Gates is a decade-old festival of Czech-German Jewish culture that features a week of great music from the likes of 17 Hippies, plus dance and classical music performances in such amazing venues as the Wallenstein Gardens.

United Islands of Prague

Where: various venues
When: June
Website: www.unitedislands.cz
Concerts and beer stands take over the Vltava riverfront; performers include musicians local and global, and names as big as Iggy Pop and Placebo.

Respect

When: June
Website: http://respect.inway.cz
The world and ethnic music high point of the year features Balkan folk and Gypsy music, with performers such as Taraf de Haidouks. The organiser is Prague's main underground and ethnic music label, Rachot; concerts are usually staged at the Akropolis.

Tanec Praha (Dance Prague)

Where: various venues
When: June
Website: www.tanecpha.cz
Dance Prague is the biggest and longest-running dance event in Prague, featuring world-renowned companies alongside lesser-known Czech and international dance and dance-theatre troupes. Shows run alongside workshops and symposiums.

United Islands of Prague

Where: Vltava riverfront
When: June
Website: www.unitedislands.cz
Concerts and beer stands take over the Vltava riverfront; performers include musicians local and global, and names as big as Iggy Pop and Placebo.

Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)

Where: various venues
When: July
Website: www.kviff.cz
Held in the West Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary, this is the only film festival in the country accredited by the FIAPF, the organisation that sanctions the Cannes, Berlin and Venice festivals. But unlike those festivals, the Karlovy Vary event is skewed towards audiences, offering thousands the chance to see films otherwise impossible to catch over here. High-profile guests have included Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and Elijah Wood, but the real joy is in the gathering of indie film-makers. Many films sell out, but if space allows they'll fit you in. Note that tickets can only be bought on site and only go on sale a day before the screening.

Letní slavnosti staré hudby (Summer Festival of Old Music)

When: July
Website: www.collegiummarianum.cz
This increasingly popular gala of Renaissance and baroque music, performed on period instruments and in historic settings, is one of the few native musical offerings during the summer holidays. It also attracts some of the finest performers around.

Barum Rally

Where: start/finish line: Interhotel Moskva, Práce náměstí 2512, Zlín
When: Aug
Website: www.barum.rally.cz
A classic road race dating back decades, the Barum Rally still attracts thrill-seeking drivers from across Europe, and has recently been ranked one of the best. Moravian roads roar into life as daredevil amateur and pro drivers compete for the big pohár, the winner's cup. Ralley Zlín sponsors the event, and an entry form in English can be downloaded from the website above.

Autumn

Pražsky podzim (Prague Autumn)

When: Sept-Oct
Website: www.pragueautumn.cz
Prague Autumn seems to be gaining on its bigger brother, with an increasingly diverse programme and headliners from the Bamberger Symphony to the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

International Aviation Film

When: Sept
Website: www.jlmpraha.cz
A relatively new event that largely concentrates on classic war and action films; guests have included famous pilots and war heroes. The festival seems to have settled at Village Cinemas Anděl.

Arrival of burčák

When: late Sept-early Oct
Burčák – a cloudy, half-fermented, early-season wine – arrives in Prague some time in autumn. It's a speciality of Moravia, where the inhabitants apparently don't have the patience to wait for their booze to finish ageing. Served straight from the barrel into special jugs, burčák looks like murky wheat beer, tastes like cherryade and – drinker, beware – will sneak up on you if you don't treat it with due respect.

Tina B

Where: various venues
When: Oct
Website: www.tina-b.eu/eng
A further feather in the cap of Prague's reputation as a centre of contemporary-art happenings is this 'anti-biennale' annual which sprung up in 2006 and hasn't yet anchored in one venue. Called 'Tina B' – an acronym for 'This Is Not Another Biennale' – it brought in intriguing art from near and far, while its curatorial aims were ambitious yet tightly focused.

Struny podzimu (Strings of Autumn)

Where: various venues
When: Oct/Nov
Tel/website: 224 901 247/www.strunypodzimu.cz
With bold new ideas and concerts at the National Theatre and the Rudolfinum, this well-established festival is known for lining up international performers in a wide range of genres. Recent stars have included Czech rocker Lenka Dusilová and top baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants.

Čtyři dny v pohybu (Four Days in Motion)

Where: various venues
When: Oct
Website: www.ctyridny.cz
This annual festival of dance and visual theatre brings practitioners of experimental international movement theatre and multimedia performance to an assortment of makeshift theatres inside industrial spaces around Prague. Recent festivals have been located creatively in spaces such as a former sewerage plant and an ancient sports complex. There are some English-language productions.

Velká Pardubická

Where: Pražská 607, Pardubice
When: 2nd wknd in Oct
Website: www.pardubice-racecourse.cz
The star steeplechase event in Prague's annual calendar is also a controversial one: horses and riders alike are often injured on the difficult course. Celebrity horse people pour in from all over Europe, putting box seat prices at a premium. The website has ticket details.

Anniversary of the birth of Czechoslovakia

When: 28 Oct
The country no longer exists, but that's no reason to cancel a public holiday, so the people still get a day off. There are lots of fireworks – as on every other occasion – and it takes forever to get a tram.

All Saints' Day

When: 1 Nov
If there's one day in the year when you should visit one of the city's cemeteries, All Saints' Day, when people pray for deceased relatives, is it. Whole families turn out to light candles, lay wreaths, remember and pray. The best place to go to is the enormous Olšany Cemetery.

Anniversary of the Velvet Revolution

Where: Národní třida & Václavské náměstí, Nové Město, Prague 1
When: 17 Nov
Surprisingly understated rituals commemorate the demonstration that began the Velvet Revolution: flowers are laid and candles lit in Wenceslas Square near the equine statue and on the memorial on Národní třída near no.20.

Festival francouzského filmu (French Film Festival)

When: late Nov
Tel/website: 221 401 011/http://fff.volny.cz
This isn't as arty as you might expect: mainstream French comedies and crime films do appear, along with French stars introducing their films.

Winter

St Nicholas's Eve

Where: around Charles Bridge & Staroměstské náměstí, Staré Město, Prague 1
When: 5 Dec
Grown men spend the evening wearing frocks, drinking beer and terrorising small children. They wander the streets in threes, dressed up as St Nicholas, an angel and a devil, symbolising confession, reward and punishment. Rather than a red cloak, St Nicholas usually sports a long white vestment, with a white mitre and staff; the angel hands out sweets to children who have been good, and the devil is on hand to dispense rough justice to those who haven't.

Christmas

When: 24, 25 Dec
In the week leading up to the Vánoce (Christmas) holiday, the streets sport huge tubs of water filled with carp, the traditional Czech Christmas dish, and there are Christmas markets in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. The feasting and exchange of gifts happen on the evening of 24 December, when pretty much everything closes down. Things don't start opening up again until the 27th.

The finest midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is at St Vitus's Cathedral.

New Year's Eve

Where: Václavské náměstí & Staroměstské náměstí, Staré Město & Nové Město, Prague 1
When: 31 Dec
Bring your helmet? On New Year's Eve, or Silvestr, the city's streets are packed with a ragtag crowd of tipsy Euro-revellers, with much of the fun centred on Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square. Fireworks are let off everywhere and flung around with frankly dangerous abandon, then champagne bottles are smashed.

Anniversary of Jan Palach's death

Where: Václavské náměstí, Nové Město, Prague 1
When: 16 Jan
Jan Palach set himself ablaze in Wenceslas Square on 16 January 1969, to protest against the Soviet occupation that killed off the promise of cultural freedom during the brief Prague Spring of 1968. His grave at Olšany Cemetery is adorned with candles and flowers all year round. Many people visit Olšany or the memorial to the countless victims of communism near the St Wenceslas statue to lay a few more.

Projekt 100 (Project 100)

When: Jan-Feb
Website: www.artfilm.cz
The programmes at the arthouses are made up in part of films that come from this travelling festival. Around ten noted local film critics and scholars each choose what they think is an important film, either recent or classic, and the package then plays in Prague theatres in January and February before touring the country. After that, they turn up on arthouse schedules as often as their popularity allows.

Masopust

Where: Akropolis, Kubelíkova 27, žižkov, Prague 3
When: mid Feb
Website: www.palacakropolis.cz
Traditionally, groups of 12 carollers accompanied by people in masks parade about in this whimsical celebration of what the rest of the world knows as Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday (the original tradition seen in the Czech lands has the holiday on Sunday). According to custom, everyone who meets this procession should be invited to the evening feast, which is a great opportunity to stuff yourself with a freshly slaughtered pig and wash it down with rivers of beer.

Prague Jazz Festival

When: Feb-Oct
Website: www.agharta.cz.
One of the hottest jazz fests in Central Europe, the Prague Jazz Festival features world-class players like John Scofield and Marcus Miller. Sponsored by the AghaRTA club, the festival is small but persistent, carrying on throughout the spring, summer and autumn, with performances mainly at the Lucerna Music Bar.

Febiofest

When: late winter
Tel/website: 221 101 111/www.febiofest.cz
The largest of the local festivals, in terms of titles, has moved from its former home at the multiplex at Slovanský dům to the one at Nový Smíchov. It's also retooled under the direction of new programmers, who have moved the focus from quantity to quality. The most recent winning film, the hip Estonian indie Magnus, illustrates the improved state of things, although the programme still features films both old and new, from all over the globe and on select topics. Famous guests add star pull.

Public holidays

New Year's Day 1 Jan
Easter Monday
Labour Day 1 May
Liberation Day 8 May
Cyril & Methodius Day 5 July
Jan Hus Day 6 July
Statehood Day 28 Sept
Czech Founding Day 28 Oct
Struggle for Freedom Day 17 Nov
Christmas 24-26 Dec.

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While every effort and care has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this guide, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain. Before you go out of your way, we strongly advise you to phone ahead and check the particulars.