Leoš Janáček International Music Festival

Leoš Janáček International Music Festival builds on the long tradition of the Janáček-themed festivals in Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region.

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 was started. The name of this festival changed several times and Ostrava Music Spring and Ostrava May became Janáček’s May in 1976, to which the epithet International Music Festival was added in 1990. In Hukvaldy, the Janáček Musical Lachia Festival was replaced by a new festival called Janáček’s Hukvaldy in 1993. In spite of differences between the aforementioned festivals, their objective was the same: to promote primarily the work and ideas of Leoš Janáček and the values of classical music in general, with an emphasis on Czech music.