Tip for the Weekend: Pražský Majáles

This weekend is the festival Majales, (translated from Latin as “May”) which marks the Czech student celebration for the arrival of May and hedonism of student life.

Over the past years growing up into the biggest Czech festival and is organized in Prague, Brno and Hradec Králové. Majáles is launched by the ceremony of building Májka maypole, which starts the “Month of students”. Everything culminates with the main celebration day with Majales Parade and final Majales Open-air festival.

Majales also became influential in the development of counter culture in the Czech Republic after the communist censorship of the early 1950s. A famous year was 1965, when beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg visited this city and found himself elected the ‘King of May’ by the students of Prague. He was then deported for allegedly corrupting the city’s youth with his poetry he wrote for the festival.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the festival continued to flourish in popularity and culture, with the former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus becoming the first King of spring after the revolution.

Today, the “month of students’’ kicks off with the Majales Parade and building the Majka maypole and is enjoyed by 20,000 students.

ARTISTS: 

• RYBIČKY 48
• TOMÁŠ KLUS
• HORKÝŽE SLÍŽE
• JELEN
• MANDRAGE
• MAJK SPIRIT
• BEN CRISTOVAO
• LENNY
• MAREK ZTRACENÝ
• MIRAIEGOA

Author: red