TrutnOFF Open Air Festival 2026

The project as part of TrutnOFF 2026 will focus on the presentation of intergenerational professional art in alternative and marginal genres. TrutnOFF Open Air Festival is an international multi-genre event and the oldest festival of its kind in the Czech Republic, with a tradition dating back to 1984. It was founded on civic, alternative, and independent initiatives rooted in the underground and dissident movements. Its first editions were banned and dispersed by the communist state police, and since its beginnings the festival has remained firmly committed to the non-commercial scene. Among its founders was former dissident, writer, and political prisoner Václav Havel, who after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 became the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia.The festival laid the foundations of open-air culture in the country and stands out for its distinctive multi-genre programming and unique atmosphere. Each year, it presents specialized sections dedicated to world music, alternative, folk, jazz, rock, and other non-commercial genres. On three levels, the project aims to highlight minority and progressive musical forms often overlooked elsewhere, contributing to the development and international visibility of the Czech alternative music scene. The festival also includes an accompanying programme featuring workshops, debates, seminars, exhibitions, and artistic reflections, providing an important educational dimension that has enriched society for several decades. TrutnOFF Festival is supported by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, and held under the patronage of the Hradec Králové Region. ----------- This year the TrutnOFF Open Air Festival freely celebrated its 42st anniversary - a striking contrast to its beginnings, when it was banned by the communist secret police, who arrested its organizers and violently dispersed the participants. TrutnOFF Open Air Festival is the oldest and distinguished legendary multigenre festival in the Czech Republic, it is also called the Czech Woodstock. It has a little bit of Native American spirit and it is well known for its magic atmosphere and original dramaturgy. The event was founded before the Velvet revolution in the Czech Republic as the first outdoor rock festival and as a protest against communism. The first years of this unique underground based festival were in 1984 and 1987. The festival endured these hardships and is held every year to this very day. Václav Havel, the Czech humanist, the disident, the prisoner of moral sense, the play writer and former Czech President participated in the first years of the festival and he was a regular festival visitor until his last days. He was declared as the Chief of the festival in 2007. The festival has given lots of inspiration to other open air music festivals in the Czech and Slovak republics. The TrutnOFF Festival is supported by significant figures from the cultural, social and business fields. Since the begining the Trutnoff Festival is produced without multinational sponsors in order to preserve its independency and unique free spirit.