Welcome to the Festival Hall!

The long-awaited reconstruction of the Litomyšl castle continues. Among the venues of the biggest shows, the usual castle courtyard was replaced by the Festival Hall.

The airy wooden construction by architects Burian and Křivinka received a warmer than expected reception last year. This year it is also decorated with a unique scenography.

Which way to the Hall, where to park?

The parking situation has not changed. As always, the main parking area will be Smetana Square. If you park near the Marian Column,it’s the same distance to the Hall as it is to the castle (i.e. about a 5-minute walk).

VIP ticket holders can use street parking inProkešova and U Plovárny.

Visitors with reduced mobility can, of course, arrive by car just outside the Hall. Please use the entrance from Prokešova Street – staff will guide you.

What clothes to choose?

Although customs change over time and are not the same all over the world, it is still customary in this country to choose formal attire, i.e. evening formal wear, for classical music programmes. This means a dark suit with a shirt and tie for gentlemen, a dress or skirt of at least below the knee or a formal suit for ladies.

What capacity does the Hall have and will the auditorium be elevated as visitors are used to?

A huge advantage is that all festival “equipment” can be placed in the Hall almost unchanged. The stage, an elevated auditorium with the same capacity, which can also be equipped with upholstered seats due to the indoor space.

And won't there be an ice rink?

Don’t worry. Although the multifunctional hall is used by skaters in winter, from spring the ice melts and with it the cold from the feet. Unlike the castle courtyard, the Hall is also completely roofed. Adverse weather conditions will not jeopardize the shows this year.

What about the acoustics?

Your ears will feel like cotton! For the 2024 edition, we had much more time to prepare and the acoustics have been improved. The auditorium is surrounded by up to five-metre high walls with hand-painting. Besides being beautiful, they serve as a reflective surface to the listener’s ear. The acousticians from AVT Group, who reviewed the designs with a digital model, were very complimentary of this surface, reinforcing the overall sound energy. The second, even more fundamental modification consists in the fact that reflective panels are suspended under the ceiling, which have different inclinations and the sound is reflected from them in the direction of the audience, especially to the back rows of the auditorium.

Other shows remain in their usual places??

Yes. Churches, the Riding Hall, Smetana House and Nové Hrady are traditional venues that have not been affected by the reconstruction. Likewise, the Festival Gardens remain in place.

What about the overtures?

We are very proud of our established lecturer introductions, they are well attended and really popular. They were held in the Castle Riding Hall, which is available, but it is a bit further from the Festival Hall. For the second time we will use the St. Anne’s Church, which is about 100 m away from the Hall. Visitors will pass by it on their way from Smetana Square to the Hall.

After all, it is just a hall - will the festival lose its genius loci?

Fortunately, Litomyšl is not only a town of amazing historical monuments, but also of great contemporary architecture. Years ago, when the local ice rink was being roofed, architects Aleš Burian and Gustav Křivinka were invited. They have created a timeless structure that can perform many functions and is also suitable for concerts. It was rightly nominated for the European Mies van der Rohe Award for Architecture.

The space consists of an airy wooden roof structure with light strips that let daylight into the interior and fill it with an unexpected amount of natural brightness. A translucent polycarbonate skin surrounds the walls of the building, lined on the inside with sound-absorbing material.

This year’s acoustic solution was also a great opportunity to complete the aesthetic impression. The artistic solution is based on the motifs of Veronika Bílková’s paintings, which accompany the whole year. It is approximately three hundred square metres of painting created by theatre painters. The motif is a linden tree that branches out through the entire Hall. Colors and real handmade, no printing.

What about additional services?

Break tables have their place in the park of the swimming pool. From the birch avenue leading to the main entrance of the Festival Hall there is a summer promenade full of refreshment stands every evening.

A new feature is the lounge bar into which the VIP tent will be transformed after the evening shows in the Hall. All visitors, as well as musicians and organizers, can come to the bar to refresh themselves. They will be looked after by seven-time Czech Bartender of the Year Václav Abraham.

What has not changed is the not very large accommodation capacity of the tiny town of Litomyšl. Also this year, visitors can of course order free transport in our festival car from accommodation up to 20 kilometres away. We will also pick you up at the train station in Česká Třebová and return you to wherever you need to go after the show.

You can also take advantage of free bus lines from Hradec Králové and Pardubice or from Brno, where we send tour buses almost every late afternoon in cooperation with BusLine. After the show, the bus will take you back again, so you don’t have to worry if you can’t find accommodation. All the details can be found in the Before visiting page.

How will traffic be limited in Litomyšl?

Zámecká Street will be normally passable during the festival this year. However, during the evening shows, the passage from Prokešova Street to the U Plovárny bus stop will be closed. Residents will be allowed to enter Prokešova Street during the festival, otherwise the street will be available to festival visitors as a VIP parking lot.

The concerts planned for the Castle Riding Hall and the Piarist Church will remain in these buildings, so traffic on Jiráskova Street will be restricted during the concerts.

Due to the necessity of free passage for trucks with theatre equipment, a parking ban will be marked along the wardrobe building of the town swimming pool for the entire duration of Smetana Litomysl. We expect that, as in the previous year, the afternoon visitors to the swimming pool will alternate with the evening festival guests in the car parks.

The Festival Gardens and Smetana's Creative Litomyšl also remain unchanged?

Yes, the conditions for both the programme in the gardens and the exhibitions of Smetana’s Creative Litomyšl have not changed and everything will take place in the usual way.

Where can we find the Festival Centre?

The Festival Centre with pre-sale tickets remains in the entrance passage to the castle grounds, but there is an evening box office in the Festival Hall before the shows.