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Music & Culture Festivals in Prague
Prague Spring International Music Festival
Prague, the Czech capital on the Vltava, is a UNESCO-listed city of Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture, grand concert halls and major museums and galleries, with a rich classical-music, literary and design heritage that makes it the country's cultural gateway.
Run by Prague Spring, o.p.s., with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Prague Spring International Music Festival is the Czech Republic's flagship classical event, founded in 1946 by the conductor Rafael Kubelik. For about three weeks from mid-May it fills the city's great halls, the neo-Renaissance Rudolfinum and the Art Nouveau Municipal House among them, with leading orchestras, conductors and soloists from around the world. By tradition the festival opens on 12 May, the anniversary of Bedrich Smetana's death, with his cycle Ma vlast, and closes with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Around it run the Prague Spring International Music Competition and an art salon. For anyone who wants to hear world-class orchestral and chamber music in the city that shaped Smetana, Dvorak and Janacek, this is the season to come.
Best months
The festival runs for about three weeks from mid-May into early June, with concerts across the city's main halls. The opening night on 12 May and the closing concert are the marquee events and sell out early, while the wider programme offers dozens of concerts to choose from. May and early June are pleasant in Prague, and tickets are sold through the festival well in advance.
Getting there & around
The festival plays out in central Prague, with the Rudolfinum on the river and the Municipal House by the Old Town both walkable or a short tram ride apart. Prague is well connected by air and rail, and the concert halls sit among the main sights, so the festival slots easily into a city stay. Buy tickets online ahead of the visit, especially for the opening and closing concerts.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Prague Spring
OrganizerPrague Spring, the Prazske jaro public-benefit company, organises the international music festival founded in 1946 by conductor Rafael Kubelik, along with the Prague Spring International Music Competition. Each year from mid-May it programmes several dozen concerts across the city's leading halls, including the Rudolfinum and the Municipal House, bringing world orchestras and soloists to Prague. It traditionally opens on 12 May with Smetana's Ma vlast.