From next year, Brno will host the oldest Czech multi-genre summer festival. Today, councillors approved the intention to organize the TrutnOFF-BrnoON Open Air Music Festival, though a specific venue has not yet been set. With the move to the South Moravian capital, the festival would be renamed BrnoON Open Air Festival. Photo: stock picture / for illustration purposes.
Brno, Sep 2 (BD) – The TrutnOFF festival, co-founded by Václav Havel, was held in Trutnov until 2016. In 2020, it could build on its history, but this time in Brno. On Wednesday, the City Council agreed to host the event, either in the penultimate or last weekend of August next year.
“TrutnOFF is a unique festival in the Czech Republic. It is not only a music festival, but also includes cultural and educational programs – discussions, debates, lectures, seminars and Q&A sessions with personalities from many fields. We don’t have any events like this in Brno, so the revived festival could bring a completely different target group to the city, ”said Tomáš Koláčný (Piráti), Second Deputy Mayor of Brno.
The festival, nicknamed “East Bohemian Woodstock”, comes from underground origins, and was preceded by illegal events, concerts and exhibitions in various barns and village taverns. The foundations were laid in Staré Buky near Trutnov in October 1984. On that occasion the concert was dispersed by the communist police, known as StB, but the participants, who had come from all corners of the Czech Republic, were then all invited to meet at Hrádeček, the legendary summer home of Václav Havel. It is said that the event was better than the original planned concert, and the participants subsequently thanked the organizers of the party for “how nicely they had arranged the festival with the StB.”
Get the news first! Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Top stories of the day in your mailbox every morning.
