The best from the Czech 2024 cultural events calendar

Love and music can move mountains. With the bicentenary of the birth of world-renowned Czech-born composer Bedřich Smetana, we can look forward to a special Year of Czech Music. A diverse range of cultural shows will be accompanied by international film, rock and folk festivals. We present a selection of the best that the Czech cultural scene has to offer in 2024.

Many months packed with celebrations of the great Czech musical masters are coming. World-famous composer Bedřich Smetana, an iconic figure in the world of classical music, was born 200 years ago. This year has been declared the Year of Czech Music in his honour. This means you can look forward to hundreds of concerts throughout the Czech Republic.

Classic doesn't have to be classical

One of the year’s most important cultural events will be the SMETANA’S LITOMYŠL festival. After all, it was at the château brewery in Litomyšl that Bedřich Smetana was born on 2 March 1824.

A visit to Smetana’s Litomyšl, the country’s biggest classical music festival outside Prague, this year to be held from 13 June to 3 July, is sure to be an extraordinary experience, and not only for its spectacular dramaturgy and amazing performances. The town itself has its own unique genius loci, while the actual festival is held in the stunning setting of a UNESCO château. The programme will feature some top names and stars from around the world. One of the main attractions will be a gala concert by British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso, acclaimed by experts as the successor to Luciano Pavarotti.

Concert halls in smaller towns around Czechia will also be hosting classical music concerts. The JANÁČEK BRNO music festival will be held from 1 to 24 November, dedicated to the composer of the famous opera Jenůfa, which has been hugely successful around the world, from New York to Tokyo. This year’s festival is extra special as it will feature an iconic opera closely associated with Brno: The Cunning Little Vixen is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its première, and some of the top names coming to congratulate it include world-famous singers Adam Plachetka and Kateřina Kněžíková, familiar to audiences from some of the leading opera houses across Europe.

The programme of the LEOŠ JANÁČEK INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL, to be held in Ostrava from 30 May to 3 June, will also be dedicated to the 170th anniversary of Janáček's birth.

One of the highlights of the Year of Czech Music will be the PRAGUE SPRING festival in the historical heart of the Czech capital. Scheduled from 12 May to 3 June, it will host dozens of dazzling performances by leading musicians, symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles from all over the world. The Prague Spring festival will launch with Smetana’s My Fatherland, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker. Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia will be returning to Czechia’s largest classical music festival after a five-year break. This time it will be performing under the baton of the most acclaimed contemporary Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, the principal guest conductor of the Italian capital's orchestra.

The iconic symphony My Fatherland will also be a spectacular start to the ČESKÝ KRUMLOV FESTIVAL OF CHAMBER MUSIC 2024, to be held in one of South Bohemia’s most beautiful towns (12 July– 3 August). For the first time ever, the opening evening of the festival, accompanied by dance choreography, will be set in the town's romantic park alongside the Vltava River. One major attraction will be the Opera Gala (13 July), featuring the truly legendary baritone Placido Domingo.

Tribute will be paid to Czech genius Antonín Dvořák, who was in America when he composed the New World Symphony, the most famous of his works From the New World, between 6 and 24 September by leading soloists, conductors and internationally acclaimed orchestras during the DVOŘÁK PRAGUE FESTIVAL.

Colours wherever you look

In July, the Mecca of this year’s music festivals will be the city of Ostrava and its industrial complex at Dolní Vítkovice, a wholly unique site where you’ll feel as though you’re on the set of a sci-fi film. You can party from 17 to 20 July not only at one of the best and biggest multi-genre festivals in Europe, COLOURS OF OSTRAVA, which will feature pop-rock stars such as Lenny Kravitz, Sam Smith and Queens of the Stone Age, but also from 3 to 6 July at the tenth annual BEATS FOR LOVE - the biggest dance music festival in Central Europe.

Prague will also be full of colours from 10 to 13 October. One of Czechia’s biggest cultural events is the SIGNAL FESTIVAL, an amazing light show that sees Prague’s streets, public spaces, its most famous historical attractions and less well-known hidden-away parts lit up by brightly coloured illuminated installations by light designers from Czechia and around the world.

To the spa and the monastery in search of Hollywood stars

You don't have to go to Cannes to enjoy the atmosphere of an INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL featuring top movie stars (over the years, these have included Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Robert Redford, John Travolta, Uma Thurman and lots more) on the red carpet, with champagne aplenty at the film premières and parties. Visit the UNESCO spa town of Karlovy Vary from 28 June to 6 July!

KVIFF 2023

World-class treasures: Dancing, mountains of pork and a young lad in women’s clothing

What about heading off to the biggest and oldest INTERNATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL in Europe and seeing the dancers of the wild Verbuňk in action, a tradition on the UNESCO Heritage List? Mark it on your calendar - it runs from 27 to 30 June at the Strážnice Open-Air Museum.

Add one more folklore tradition from the UNESCO list to verbuňk. You can enjoy a colourful medley of masks with a proper feast full of pork, doughnuts and plum brandy during the SHROVETIDE FESTIVAL. The exuberant celebrations before Lent starts have been taking place all around the country since time immemorial; however, only the Hlinsko festival bears the mark of world heritage.

The RIDE OF THE KINGS also has long roots in the Czech culture. A procession led by the king and his entourage on dressed up horses... It may sound simple for heritage inscribed by UNESCO. But the king is a small boy with a rose between his lips, wearing a ladies’ dress! This year he’ll be riding out amongst his subjects on 25 and 26 May.

You simply have to visit the European Capital of Christmas 2024 at Advent

And we really can’t imagine the year drawing to a close without the Christmas markets. Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava, České Budějovice… Cities throughout Czechia will be fragrant with the aroma of punch, mulled wine and freshly baked gingerbread! But that’s still a long way off. We will of course present you with the most beautiful Christmas markets in time. However, one thing is certain – there’s one city you really shouldn’t miss out during this coming Advent. And that’s Brno, the proud bearer of the title European Capital of Christmas 2024.