Prague Spring music festival to stage four concerts with live audience

Four concerts within the Prague Spring International Music Festival will take place in Prague's Municipal House with a live audience, festival spokesman Pavel Trojan has told CTK. The festival has joined a pilot project from the Czech Ministry of Culture aiming to restart cultural events restart after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

Prague Spring's opening and closing concerts, on May 12 and June 3, will be among the first public cultural events to be held in the Czech Republic since the autumn lockdown over the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic last year.

The updated Prague Spring program contains more than 20 concerts. All of them will be broadcast for free on the festival website. Additionally, selected concerts will be streamed on Czech Television and Czech Radio.

The opening concerts of this year's Prague Spring edition will be exceptional in many respects. Artistically, says Trojan, thanks to a unique rendition of Bedřich Smetana's My Country by Czech conductor Václav Luks and his baroque orchestra and vocal ensemble Collegium 1704.

Additionally, what makes them special is the pilot project within which they will set an example of a concert with a live audience as well as full respect for the epidemic situation, festival director Roman Bělor said.

"We believe that the currently strict and limiting conditions for these concerts will be gradually eased due to the favorable development of the epidemic. Progressively, it will be possible to return to regular concerts and social life," he added.

The number of spectators will be limited to about 300 people in the concert hall. Giving priority to those who bought their tickets first, the organizers stress all attendees will have to undergo a PCR test for Covid-19 at one of the partner laboratories of the festival. Thus, their test result will be tied to their ticket.

FFP2 or KN95 respirators will be mandatory throughout the whole Municipal House. Seating will be adjusted to match social distance regulations.

"I am pleased that it will be possible to hold a few pilot projects with live audience in the forthcoming days, such as the Prague Spring concerts," said Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek.

"However, I will be pleased even more if cultural events will take place regularly after the long Covid-19 lockdown. Obviously, under certain sanitary measures."

Last year's festival took place entirely online, and featured 11 live-streamed concerts.