Leoš Janáček International Music Festival

Leoš Janáček International Music Festival – Mezinárodní hudební festival Leoše Janáčka is considered to be the third most important classical music festival in the Czech Republic. It is given by both its scope and the number of concerts, but above all, also by its quality. It takes place in Ostrava and surrounding towns, in a city that is now going through a big transformation from a traditional industrial city into a pulsing modern metropolis where traditional industrial architecture meets with the new one.

In 1948, the 1st annual edition of the Janáček Musical Lachia Festival took place and this became the second oldest music festival after Prague Spring in the then Czechoslovakia. In 1950, the tradition of a music festival in Ostrava started. The name of this festival changed several times and the International Music Festival was added in 1990.

The Leoš Janáček International Music Festival was established in 2018 by merging two important classical music festivals named after Leoš Janáček: Janáček’s May and Janáček’s Hukvaldy. They now have the chance to diversify the programmes in a greater manner, by better integrating the folklore on which Janáček based his works, or to include opera performances in the festival again. In the city of Ostrava, the festival began to make more use of non-traditional spaces for both concerts and relatively numerous accompanying events.