Jesnění 2026
150–2000 CZK
The Sudetikus Association is organizing the Jesnění festival in Jeseník for the sixth time. It will showcase the domestic arts scene, the local independent scene, and culturally creative personalities. It is a one-of-a-kind event in the entire region, set against the unique backdrop of the Jeseníky Mountains. Visitors can look forward to a diverse and rich cultural program taking place primarily in public spaces throughout the town of Jeseník. The festival aims to highlight interesting locations that often go unnoticed by both visitors and locals.
The four-day festival program kicks off on Thursday, the 3rd 6 with the opening of an exhibition by Brno-based visual artist Kryštof Netolický at the Petr Bezruč Divlpúnohuzhjkadle, organized by the Jeseník Municipal Cultural Facilities. Friday will feature, for example, an author reading by Nela Bártová, whose second book Házeliště granátů (Bílý Vigvam, 2025) won the 2026 Jiří Orten Award. In the evening, literature will once again give way to the visual arts with the opening of an exhibition of installations by students from the Intermedia Studio 2 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. The evening will then be dedicated to music, specifically concerts by the bands Laokoon and Oměj. The popular neighborhood festival, featuring a program for the whole family, as well as the main concert evening, will once again take place this year on Saturday at the Woox complex, formerly the Regenhart und Raymann textile factory.
SSaturday afternoon, audiences will be captivated by, for example, a puppet show based on J. Werich’s book Fimfárum, prepared for visitors by actor Tomáš Podrazil in collaboration with Studio Damúza. Fans of contemporary circus will be in for a treat during the performance Wander by the duo Helena and Jakub Urban, who explore the landscape around us in a playful way. This will be followed, for example, by a guided audio walk by Divadlo Setkání titled Hunters Have Eyes for Tears, which explores the fate of endangered wolves in our region. Plant lovers will enjoy a glass-block botanical workshop led by the Rostusklem collective, from which they’ll take home a designer terrarium with a plant.
Children will work with instructors from Hradec’s Recy Upcy Circular Center to make musical instruments—using materials that would otherwise end up in the trash—and will eventually play them together. In another hands-on workshop, they’ll learn many interesting facts about the lives of beavers. The neighborhood festival will once again feature the popular Restaurant Day food festival and stalls offering local delicacies as well as Neapolitan pizza.
The Jesnění Festival is known for its multi-genre approach and its commitment to bringing contemporary non-mainstream artistic productions—both Czech and from neighboring countries—to the people of Jeseník and the surrounding area. In collaboration with the Jeseník Regional Museum, the collective Witches on the Run—composed of Vida Vojić (Sweden), Hanna Magdalena Gödl (Austria), and Nina Pixel (Slovakia). Visitors can also look forward to local artists, such as the Zlatý Osel Creative Group, which, through a musical evening titled What Do the Jeseníky Mountains Sound Like When They Speak?, will invite the audience on Friday evening to its upcoming production About Druids and People (directed by Jan Žůrek). The theme draws on the regional history of the Jeseníky Mountains and artistic research conducted in collaboration with the Jeseník Regional Museum. The festival program will conclude on Sunday at the Priessnitz Spa with a concert by the duo TOŠA, Klára Pudláková and Michal Wróblewski, who together explore the possibilities of combining the saxophone and double bass and experiment with references to various musical traditions and their combinations.
The festival program will take place at the Petr Bezruč Theater, Smetanovy sady, Vodní tvrz, the Woox Complex, and the Priessnitz Spa. Behind the festival is a group of people from the local association Sudetikus, which has been working since 2015 to bring public spaces in Jeseník to life and give people the chance to participate in events in the town where they live. This year’s festival is co-organized by Jeseník Municipal Cultural Facilities and the Jeseník Regional Museum.
The festival’s media partner is Český rozhlas Radio Wave. Financial support for the event was provided by the Ministry of Culture, the Olomouc Region, the City of Jeseník, Naturfyt - Bio s.r.o., Stavforce, s.r.o., Gastromach, s.r.o., and Omya CZ s.r.o. The event’s partners are Woox Syndicate s.r.o., Stavitelství Knotek, s.r.o., the Priessnitz Spa, and the Zlínský Zvěřinec association.
