For ten years, Fléda club at Štefanikova st. has been the centre of alternative culture in Brno, hosting both promising local bands and globally known artists. It has an uncertain future now, due to a controversial public notice.

The local council of Královo Pole quarter gave a clear order to the owners of Fléda: “All clubs and pubs located between 18 Štefánikova st. and 28 Štefánikova st. must turn off music at 10 p.m.” Reason? Complaints of people living around the venue.

Although it may seem to be reasonable, the notice raised several issues:

• Why don’t the order apply to all clubs in Královo Pole, just to Fléda?
• Why didn’t the council give Fléda a chance to isolate the building? The owners already invested around €100,000 to solve the problem, further repairs were planned.
• Why didn’t the complaining residents let officers measure the levels of noise in their apartments? Also, some of the complaints were filed when Fléda was closed.
• The owners of Fléda also claim that before the neighbouring apartment house was bought by Jan Kratochvíl, noone complained. Kratochvíl sits in the council and has voted in favor of the notice Mr. Kratochvíl later disputed that, but there is no record of the poll. He claims that the town should buy the building hosting Fléda and repair it. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
• The notice does not apply to nearby casinos attracting gamblers all night long – even in the Kartochvíl’s building.
• Also, the institutions of local government are schizophrenic: Fléda is often praised by the town council for attracting tourists to Brno and being one of the private venues that nourish the cultural life. On the other hand, it faces both financial and operational problems due to the Královo Pole council.
• Finally: the notice is actually not so clear. Fléda is oficially registered as a cinema, so a new notice or a court decision may be needed to solve the problem.

The case will evolve on. A petition will be launched in the forthcoming days. It is also possible that Fléda could move to another building. That would be a pity anyway, as the “Fledermaus cabaret” at Štefánikova st. has been hosting various cultural institutions since early 20th century.

Bonjour! Aïe! Salut! – Just like every spring, Bonjour Brno festival will let you taste French culture and lifestyle without leaving Brno.

The festival is organised by Alliance française.

I especially like these events:

• Gourmet weeek in La Bouchée (33 Údolní st.) from March 30 to April 6.
• Concert of IMG at Fléda (24 Štefánikova st.) on Saturday, April 14.
• Concert of Yann-Fañch Kemener & Aldo Ripoche (two excellent artists of Brittany) at University of technology (1 Antonínská st.) on Tuesday, April 17.
• Dance evening “Fest-noz” at Design Museum (14 Husova st.) on Wednesday, April 18.
• Screening of Jean Cocteau’s Orphée at Cinema Art (19 Cihlářská st.) on March 30.
• Pétanque tournament at Lužánky park (Lidická st.) on Saturday, April 15, at 11 a.m. – including a tasting of Ricard pastis.

Again, the website does not contain an English version. If you want to learn more, try machine-translating the French one.

Check out the price of tickets (free admission is marked as “vstup volný”) – and buy them in advance at the venues or at the stand in the first floor of Dům pánů z Lipé (86/17 Náměstí Svobody sq.).

Do you think great live music is always expensive? Now you can enjoy 10 concerts of world, folklore and ethnic music for only CZK 300. Concerts of Etno Jaro festival will take place in Stará Pekárna (“Old Bakery”) club – one every Thursday evening until April.

Schedule of Etno Jaro 2012

Concerts start at 8 p.m.

• Thu 2/2 – Trio de Janeiro (etnojazz)
• Thu 2/16 – Ladě (“rough chanson”)
• Thu 2/23 – Živé kvety (Slovak punk-folk band)
• Thu 3/1 – Los Rumberos Trio (Cuba/CZ, latin & afro-cuban)
• Thu 3/8 – Ahmed má hlad (south./east. European music)
• Thu 3/15 – Neočekávaný dýchánek
• Thu 3/22 – Tubabu (west-african music) + support: OIT
• Thu 3/29 – Di Grine Kuzine (Berlin-based klezmer band)
• Thu 4/4 – Bran (Czech band playing music of Brittany)
• Thu 4/12 – KlezMehrin (klezmer) – on the top picture

Before the first concert on 2/2, a festival pass can be bought at Stará Pekárna (8 Štefánikova st.) for only CZK 300 (€12).

Single tickets cost from CZK 100 to CZK 150 and the pass can be bought later for CZK 450.

Coffee week

80 cafés, dozens of events, litres of coffee dark as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love. The 2011 Coffee Week is hitting Brno from October 1 to October 7 and it would be a pity to miss it.

The International Coffee Day is knocking on the door, so why not explore the cafés of Brno in the first week of October? Their owners are have prepared a festival called “Coffee Week”, which brings dozens of various events to the town.

You can check out the schedule at this great English language website.

My picks are: concerts at café Zastávka (wonderful tiny café in quarter Židenice; 232 Táborská st.) and “paint your own cup” event in Mitte (even smaller café located in hostel Mitte, offering excellent “more fair than fair trade” coffee; 11 Panská st).

The Young Gods

Swiss post-industrial band The Young Gods is going to perform at Fléda club (24 Štefánikova st.) on Tuesday, February 15.

The band’s lineup has generally consisted of a vocalist, a sampler operator and a drummer. Their instrumentation often includes sampled electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and other samples. The lyrics are depicted in English, French and German. #

Tickets cost CZK 400 each.

Cover of the most famous Buena Vista Social Club album (source: last.fm)

Three members of the famous Havana Vista Social Club band, singer Julio Alberto Fernandez, Julienne Oviedo Sanchez, trumpeter Pizaco Yancy, will perform at the Live from Buena Vista The Havana Lounge party. The event takes place in “D” building of the exhibition centre on February 16 from 7 p.m.

The organisers claim that this is going to be the “biggest Cuban party in Europe” and a great way of celebrating the Valentine’s Day.

The tickets cost CZK 690 or CZK 1600 and may be purchased via Ticketportal.

Fireworks… again (photo by Zdenek Softic)

There are more events yet to be announced – but let’s take a look at the list of what we already know is going to happen in Brno in 2011.

(Hint: nothing special beside the fireworks festival and Grand Prix. Actually, is that something special anymore?)

January 25 – Thirteen people, including the Rector of the University of Technology, Karel Rais, will be awarded by the Prize of the town of Brno.

Some time in January or February – The beautiful functionalist building of café ERA should be finally reopened for public, after months of delay.

February 28 – The last day people can complain about the draft of the new urban plan (Czech only).

March 2-9 – Film festival Cinema Mundi will present less known films from all around the world.

March 3 – Uber-popular dance show Lords of the Dance will take place in the Exhibition centre.

March 18 – German techno band Scooter will ask the question “How Much Is the Fish?” in the Exhibition centre.

March 29 – Bobby McFerrin will perform at Jazz Fest Brno.

April-May – Bonjour Brno, the festival of French culture.

May 27 – Start of the international fireworks festival Ignis Brunensis (usually lasts for two weeks).

June 4 – Launch of Autosalon, the international exhibition of cars and automotive industry.

June 17 – A race of WTCC - Fia World Touring Car Championship at the Brno Circuit.

July – The month of author reading. This time it will cover contemporary Polish literature.

July 8 – Superbike race at the Brno Circuit.

August – The Guitar festival.

August 14 – Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix. The biggest event of the year. As usual.

October 7-21 – Moravian autumn, a festival of classical music.

December – Tugendhat villa will finally be restored. It will reopen in 2012.

I will try to update the list whenever anyone anounces anything interesting. But will they?

Source: Brno Party University Facebook page

“The largest student party in Brno” starts in Fléda club (24 Štefánikova st.) on Wednesday, October 27, at 8 p.m.

There’ll be two concerts (Overhype, Vehykl), five DJs (Ekop, DJane Jeaniss, Dummy, 2T, Majky) and hundreds of students looking for fun and new friends.

The genres will vary from rock to nu-metal, hip hop and house.

Tickets are avaible for CZK 100 and beer will cost only CZK 20 (€0.80).

See details and Facebook page (both in Czech only).

I personally recommend Prague-based kletzmer band Trombenik (October 21)

Check out the complete schedule (PDF). It’s Czech, but I think you can understand a lot from the images of bands.

Ticket to the complete festival can be bought at the bar of Stará pekárna and costs CZK 490. Tickets to particular concerts cost around CZK 150.

Slovak girl tapping burčák (source: Wikipedia)

You may enjoy red, white, sparkling and other kinds of wine at the Wine feast, but most importantly – fresh burčák, i.e. “federweisser”, young wine. Burčák has a cult status in south Moravia, it is avaible only for few weeks in a year and people love it.

There is a proverb saying that you should drink 5-6 litres of burčák every year, because you have the same volume of blood in your veins. Be careful – it may cause a serious hangover!

International guitar festival Brno 2010 (English website, hurray) will spice up the summer in Brno with some flamenco and jazz.

I think that the most interesting event is the “Flamenco night” on August 7th – a performance of Spanish guitarist and composer Gerardo Núñez and dancer Carmen Cortés.

All concerts are going to take place in the courtyard New city hall at Dominikanské naměstí sq., only the flamenco night will be held in the courtyard of Špilberk castle.

Frank Morey

I am somehow ignoring music festivals taking place near Brno – so let’s fix it! This weekend, “Beseda u Bigbítu” (“rock’n'roll party”, roughly translated) is taking place in small town Tasov u Veselí nad Moravou (see a map here).

It’s not only about the rock’n'roll. Beseda offers dozens of artists from central Europe, performing various genres, from folk to current electronic music. I am especially looking forward to the concert of Frank Morey & His Band from Massachusetts, USA.

The 18th Beseda u Bigbítu starts on Friday, August 6, and ends on Saturday, August 7. Tickets for the whole event cost from €14. Check out the machine-translated website.