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Sep 08, 2026
Prague Castle to Celebrate Václav Havel With Four-Month Festival
Prague Morning
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Prague Castle will host a four-month festival celebrating the legacy of Václav Havel, with theatre, film, music, design and public debates taking place from October through January.
The Havel ALIVE festival will mark what would have been Havel’s 90th birthday and explore the continued relevance of his ideas. Most events will be free.
One of the main highlights will be the Czech premiere of The Warning, an unfinished Havel play that remained hidden for almost 40 years. The manuscript was discovered by David Dušek among the papers of writer Zdeněk Urbánek.
The production has been prepared by Jiří Havelka, artistic director of Dejvické Theatre, and will feature actors Martin Myšička and Ivan Trojan. The theatre will also present We’ll Start It Tomorrow, or Who’s the Gentleman Here at Prague Castle’s Riding Hall.
The festival will also focus on Havel’s influence on Czech design. In cooperation with Designblok, Prague Castle will present Design for Václav Havel, featuring objects connected with his presidency, including Bořek Šípek’s Olga chair, original glass pieces and Castle Guard uniforms designed by Theodor Pištěk.
For the first time, the exhibition will also show the entire presidential office, including Havel’s library. It will open during Designblok on October 7 and remain at the Riding Hall from October 21 to January 17.
Music and dance will feature prominently as well. On November 18, students and teachers from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague will present a gala evening directed by Magdalena Švecová. Other performances will draw on Havel’s writings, his Anticodes poetry collection, his relationship with the underground music scene and the events of November 1989.
The programme will also include screenings of Citizen Havel and Leaving, a musical evening led by Pavel Klusák, and discussions about art, architecture, freedom and democracy.
Selected festival events
October 4 — Guided tours of Lány Chateau and Prague Castle focused on Havel’s presidency. Free.
October 7 — Opening of Design for Václav Havel at the Prague Castle Riding Hall.
October 8 — Pavel Klusák’s All the President’s Rockers: Václav Havel & Music. Free.
October 14 — Citizen Havel screening followed by a discussion. Free.
October 22 — Thinking Havel Live: Democracy and the Future of Europe. Free.
November 4 — Dejvické Theatre presents We’ll Start It Tomorrow, or Who’s the Gentleman Here. Tickets CZK 390–490.
November 5–6 — Czech premieres of Havel’s The Warning. Tickets CZK 390–490.
November 12 — Thinking Havel: Between the Individual and the System. Free.
November 18 — Havel: Inspiration for a New Generation, a gala evening at the Prague Castle Riding Hall from 7 p.m. Tickets CZK 250.
November 26 — Lecture on Havel’s designer and architect Bořek Šípek at the Supreme Burgrave’s Office from 5 p.m. Free.
December 3 — Thinking Havel: Politics and Spiritual Values, a debate with Alice Koubová, Milena Bartlová and Petr Kratochvíl at the Riding Hall from 6 p.m. Free.
December 8 — Literature at the Castle: Writing Havel, a lecture at the Supreme Burgrave’s Office from 5 p.m. Free.
December 15 — Screening of Leaving, followed by a discussion with Dagmar Havlová and other guests at the Supreme Burgrave’s Office from 6 p.m. Free.
January 14 — Ceremonial presentation of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2027 at Prague Castle.
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