Divadelní pouť – Kotek Václav (2015)

This book documents the Theatre Fair, which first took place in the summer of 1985 on Střelecký Island in Prague. It was an open-air programme offering a wide range of theatrical genres, with overlaps into music, visual art and happenings. At the end of the former regime, summer Prague had virtually no cultural offerings, so from that year onward this unique theatrical gathering was held every summer under the slogans of the traditional Old Prague fair. Mimes, clowns, puppeteers, musicians, performers and jugglers enabled visitors to spend a memorable early evening on an otherwise deserted island in the city centre. Almost all those who rejected engagements at the so-called stone theatres in the second half of the 1980s met here. The event was driven by Václav Kotek, Jan Kratochvíl and puppeteer Jakub Krejčí, alongside visual artist Pavel Beneš, director Karel Makonj, Radim Vašinka and his travelling troupe, the Forman brothers, Bob Klepl, Václav Koubek, Eva Holubová, Pavel Kočí, Jiří Reidinger and many other distinctive figures from the theatre periphery and underground of the time, artists who largely rejected the appeal of the ruling power and state-funded cultural institutions.