Prague

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Clubs and gigs

Apart from the almost completely ineffective no-smoking law recently passed, and the usual chorus of grouchy Prague apartment residents threatening to call the police on anyone raising a peep after 10pm, not much has changed of late in Prague clubland. That‘s both good news and not-so-good news.

Gay
Many of the best-run clubs – and certainly those with the best soundtracks, are, not surprisingly, the gay clubs. These too are fairly few in number but the trade-off is they’re concentrated around the old centre and most are quite welcoming to anyone. The Saints in the Vinohrady district is always a laugh and American-owned Friends on a quiet street in Staré Mêsto is as amiable as its name, with a grown-up, cosy quality and 200 square metres of up-all-night dance with great sound, which makes for a break from Prague’s many gritty grope clubs frequented by German businessmen.

 

Managing it all
A time-honoured strategy for Prague clubbing is to start pretty much anywhere in the old centre and move on to other venues to check whether you’ve missed anything, stopping off at any number of dodgy late-night bars and pubs along the way to refuel. U medvídk‡ has a bar on one side open till 3am, N11’s open all night and too many small holes in the wall to mention here will present themselves as you migrate).

Thus, unless a special party or DJ is rolling in to town, there’s no real need to make a detailed advanced plan. If you did, you’d probably discover the event had moved or the club was dark for some reason anyway – that’s just how Prague works.

 

What hot tips and info there are tend to be in the free pocket-sized ’zines you’ll find lying all over town. Try U Malého Glena, Tulip or the Globe Bookstore and Coffeehouse. The names – and only the names – of these change like your socks, but as we went to press Think Again was as good as any and Prague in your Pocket, a 100 K± investment available at the Globe, is plugged in and quite comprehensive. Otherwise the Czech-language www.techno.cz has comprehensible DJ names, styles, dates and addresses – hundreds of them, in fact, including every major clubbing event for the next month.

Other useful sources – in English – are the expat websites that you may have already turned to for amusing forums on dating, laundry or all the other sundry concerns of life in Prague, namely www.expats.cz and prague.tv. The Prague Post’s site, www.praguepost.com, has comprehensive food and drink listings and its Night & Day section has all the best in music, film and festivals, but there’s no in depth clubbing coverage there at present.

As with clubbing anywhere, the good stuff only just tends to get rolling around midnight, which happens to be when the Prague metro shuts down. Don’t fret – the city centre is small and by and large safe and you may just be able to walk back to your room if it’s anywhere near the centre. Otherwise, taxis – at least the legal ones like AAA (14014) – are still cheap and night trams run till 5am on all the main routes from the centre to outlying areas. Hopping aboard one of these in booze-loving Prague is another experience you’re not likely to forget, though a clothespeg for your nose or a high state of intoxication yourself might be the best preparation for a night tram ride.

 

Less exhausting might just be ordering a Red Bull energy drink and holding out till the regular trams and metro start up again at 5am.

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