Annual festivals and events
Every August the Hip Hop Kemp takes place on the city’s airport. It is one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in Europe, with about 20,000 visitors and 500 performers a year. The festival has become a huge entertainment park of hip-hop culture from rap and break-dance to graffiti. You can spend there three days full of entertainment by music and dancing.
The first week of July every year since 1995, rock and metal bands heat up the airport during the festival Rock for People, which usually took place in the town Cesky Brod, but when it started being more popular over the years, it had to be moved to some bigger city, so in 2007, its history in Hradec Kralove started wonderfully, with stars like The Killers or Basement Jaxx.
The jazz festival Jazz Goes to Town is held every October. Performances take place all around the city in the music clubs, theaters, open-air, sometimes in a cinema or some other big hall for larger audiences. The top concerts by Czech, European and overseas jazz stars are always at the end in the Aldis Congress Centre.
Summer open-air parquet for modern music is in Vyrava, concerts are held every weekend from June to September. It is about 15 kms far from the city center, buses go there and back for free before and after the concerts.
Christmas market is ready every year to drag you into the charming atmosphere of traditional Christmas celebrations. Handicrafts and folk production in the market as well as cultural program, for instance music performances from traditional to contemporary, will come alive in the Christmas time.
Sculptors’ embankment is the open-air exhibition of original sculptures from Hořice Sculpture Workshops. It shows the modern talented sculpturers, who can demonstrate their skills with sandstone, since 2002 every year at the end of July. It is a tribute to the East Bohemian tradition of of craft sandstone working represented for example by works by Matyas Braun in Kuks or in Nove Mesto nad Metuji.
Airport of Hradec Kralove is private, however, it hosts European Veteran Airshow in the last week of June (formerly Czech Intenational Air Fest). In the past it hosted the air show of modern air-fighters CIAF, which was moved to Brno, nowadays it demonstrates historical planes, acrobatic aeroplanes and helicopter show. The company that maintains the airport also offers Aerotaxi, Sightseing flights (starting at 60 € for one passenger) and Air School, more info at: http://www.dsa.cz/?set_lang=en.
