Prague to fund Olympic Festival Park in Stromovka to watch the 2021 games

Unlike past years, Prague City Hall will not instal large screens for people to watch the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo in the city's squares. Instead, the city has given a seven-million-crown subsidy to an Olympic Festival in Stromovka park to be held simultaneously with the Tokyo games, city spokesperson Vit Hofman has told CTK.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Prague City Hall did not install the usual large screens for the recent Euro 2020 football championship, either.

This year's Olympic Games will take place from July 23 to August 8.

"We are not going to install big screens [...] at any of the Prague squares,"  Hofman said.

"Nevertheless, we have financially supported the Olympic Festival, within which visitors will be able to watch live transmissions from the Olympics, among other activities."

"The goal of the Festival is to bring in the atmosphere of the Olympic Games by means of a sports park where people can also practice various sports."

The Olympic Festival Park will open in Stromovka park in Prague 7 from July 23 through the end of the Summer Olympics. Its capacity will be 2,500 visitors at a time in July, and 3,000 in August.

Each visitor will have to produce either a Covid-19 passport (via the Tečka app or other source) or a negative test result. People will be able to get tested at the entrance.

Tickets can be both reserved or purchased in advance. Admission will run 50 crowns, but on the first day of the Festival (July 23) entrance will be free for all visitors.

This will be Prague's first Olympic Festival since 2014, when one was staged during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

"[The Olympic Festival] has expanded abroad since, has been adopted by the International Olympic Committee, and it will take place in about 20 countries worldwide this year," Hofman said.

More info about the Olympic Festival in Prague can be found at its official website.