With the government’s gradual loosening of restrictions, it’s already possible to imagine what a cultural summer in the Czech Republic would be like. In the coming months, citizens would be required to adhere to sanitary standards in order to attend a concert, theatre, or cinema. It’s unclear if, as was the case last year, evidence of human infectiousness would be needed to attend festivals.
Outdoor cultural events with a maximum of 700 seated spectators will begin on Monday (May 24th). It would also be possible to hold cultural activities with up to a thousand people outside and 500 people inside. People would be required to follow normal hygiene procedures. Visitors would be asked to wear respirators and display negative results from a PCR or antigen test to confirm that they are healthy or vaccinated.
However, the new laws do not guarantee that 500 people will be able to attend all in-house activities. This should be at most half the hall’s capacity when there are 500 people inside. In a room with a capacity of 500 people, no more than 250 people should be present to preserve the social distance. Events for a thousand people may have been held outside last summer, but no tests were expected at the time. This year, no one can guarantee such liberty.
Due to the unfavorable situation with the pandemic, big music festivals have been postponed until next year. Mighty Sounds Tabor, for example, has been rescheduled for July 8-10, 2022. Rock for People, which was originally scheduled for June at the Hradec Kralove airport, has been moved to June 16-18, 2022.
Already in the middle of March, the organizers relocated the Metronome Prague music show in June next year. The Votvrák summer music festival, which takes place at the Boží Dar airport in Milovice has been postponed until next year as well. They cited the current state of the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the uncertain outlook for the rest of 2021 in terms of sanitation and, in particular, government measures.