The Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czech: Mezinárodní hudební festival Pražké jaro) is a permanent showcase for outstanding performing artists, symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles of the world.

The first festival was held under the patronage of Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš. In that year, 1946, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and was therefore given the highest acolade: to appear on all the orchestral concerts. The project was initiated by Rafael Kubelík, chief conductor of the orchestra at the time. Since 1952, the festival has opened on 12 May—the anniversary of the death of Bedřich Smetana—with his cycle of symphonic poems Má vlast (My Country), and it closes with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

www.festival.cz