Colours of Ostrava, or simply Colours, a multi-genre event, is the biggest international music festival in Czechia and one of the biggest in Central Europe, held every summer since 2002 in Ostrava, the third largest city in the country. Colours features 16 stages, including 4 big open-air stages (the main one with a capacity of 15,000), 6 indoor stages, a theatre stage, a workshop stage, a kids' stage, a cinema, and live discussions. It features performers from all major popular music genres as well as avant-garde music and world music.
Background
Until 2012, Colours took place in the Silesian Ostrava Castle entertainment district and on the Černá louka fairgrounds, as well as at other places in the city centre. Since 2012, the festival takes place on recultivated brownfields in the Vítkovice city district.[citation needed]
Since 2016, the event has taken place concurrently with the international discussion forum Meltingpot.[1]
2017 was the first year that all tickets to Colours were sold out.[2]
COVID-19 pandemic
In 2020, while the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a four-day, indoor event was organized on the festival grounds, with a limited capacity of 1,000 attendees, titled NeFestival.[3] It included performances by the Czech bands Tata Bojs and Voxel. The Bosnian rock group Dubioza kolektiv was also slated to perform, but due to restrictions on international travel, they were unable to attend. NeFestival was called off after only two days, as restrictions on gatherings were tightened by the local government.[4]
Colours of Ostrava did not take place in 2021, again for reasons related to the ongoing pandemic.[5]
Awards and recognition
Among other awards, in 2005 and 2006, Colours won the Musical Event of the Year prize at the Anděl Awards.[6] In 2016, The Guardian ranked it among the top ten music festivals in Europe.[7]
Transportation
Due to the popularity of Colours and the electronic music festival Beats for Love, both of which take place in Ostrava in July, several trains are added to regular rail schedules by České dráhy.[8]
Controversy
In 2023, visitors were denied entry by security if they wore rainbow-colored articles of clothing. In a recording, security personnel referred to the festival's official policy of prohibiting the propagation of ideology and likened the LGBT flag to the Hakenkreuz—a Nazi symbol.[9]
