Life in Brno

Food

Brno's gastronomic and coffee scene has grown from modest to great do downright extravagant. Instead of convincing you here, we’ll let others do the talking: here’s what The Guardian thinks about Brno’s restaurants and bars – ‘Czech out Brno for a cheaper, calmer city break’; and this is what The New York Times had to say about the drinking/eating scene here – ‘In Brno, Drinks for Morning, Noon and Night‘.

One of the recent guides published by the Brno municipality is the Gourmet guide available online and in print. Mind that there are some very posh fine dining places here, luckily you can find a great food in Brno without spending a fortune – and since Brno is a progressive city, this counts even for vegetarians, vegans and people with various eating habits.

A meal in a mid-range restaurant costs under 8 EUR and a glass of beer (0.5l) about 2 EUR. (You can find more prices at numbeo.com). People can afford to eat out often, going to restaurants for lunches and dinners on a regular basis, to cafés and bistros for breakfast and coffee breaks. High demand causes the restaurant scene to bloom. With the competition getting tough, venues have to try their best to make people keep coming back.

Moreover, everywhere in the city oyu can find small bistros, street food places dubbed "hungry windows" where you can take food to-go, and foodtrucks with everything from traditional burgers to interesting fusions. Combine it all with dozen places roasting their own coffee, hoome-made lemonade, vegan ice-cream, sweet, sweet dounoughts or tender cookies and you have plenty to discover during your life here.

Festivals

Bonjour Brno
The largest festival of French culture in Brno will present artistic productions for a wide range of visitors and lovers of France and its culture.

SERIAL KILLER Festival
Serial Killer is the first international festival of TV and online series in Central and Eastern Europe. Last year we showed you many domestic and international premieres alongside with lots of famous people.

JazzFestBrno
JAZZFESTBRNO, international jazz festival was established in 2002. Our commitment to jazz is indeed strong as the main organizers are also working musicians/educators in the jazz field. We strive to make jazz more popular, we strive to create more opportunities for artists to perform, we strive to bring the highest level of musicianship and artistry closer to local musicians and artists.

Janáček BrnoThe international opera and music festival Janáček Brno is one of the most exclusive events of its kind here and in all of Europe. The coming 7th year of this biennale will occur 28 Sep–16 Oct 2020. Tickets to Janáček Brno 2020 will go on sale from 1 Dec 2019.

Brněnská 16
One of the most traditional international festivals held in the Czech Republic, with its name derived from the 16mm-wide film format. The best Czech as well as foreign short films.

Animefest.CZ
16th anniversary of Animefest, the oldest and largest anime, manga, Japanese culture and cosplay event in the Czech Republic.

Sport

Brno is well known for its architecture, culture, and cuisine, but there’s also no shortage of sports centres, as the locals recognize that there’s a sound mind in a sound body.

In Brno, you can enjoy sports on your own without needing any kind of membership, for example in the city’s parks, forests, and bicycle paths. Alternately, you can visit official sports centres and play sports there yourself or support your favourite teams.

Of all the parks in Brno, Lužánky is the most popular one for athletes. You can take a pretty good jog there or stretch your muscles at its outdoor workout station. The park is also a favourite among yoga and juggling enthusiasts.

For many tourists coming to Brno, the Brno Circuit, also known as the Masaryk Circuit, is the best-known sports venue. Every year, thousands of fans of powerful engines arrive for the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. Another popular destination is the Brno reservoir, ideal for swimming and water sports in summer and for skating and cross-country skiing in winter.

The centre located at Cow Hill (Kraví hora) features indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a beautiful view of Špilberk Castle, and is another great place to have a swim. You can also visit the popular Riviéra outdoor swimming pool, the Brno-South (Brno-jih) natural outdoor swimming pool, the Zábrdovice spa, and the Lužánky city swimming pool (the city’s largest indoor pool).

Many other places offer a variety of opportunities to enjoy sports in Brno. Fans of ice hockey regularly flock to the DRFG Arena to support the local team, HC Kometa Brno; football fans meet at the stadium at Srbská Street to watch FC Zbrojovka Brno play. Local volleyball, basketball, and baseball teams compete in the Czech first league competitions. Brno has a number of climbing walls, and you can also learn fencing, take ballet lessons, and play minigolf, tennis, volleyball, handball, floorball, indoor football, and much more.

Arts and Culture

Brno enjoys an unusually rich cultural life, quite exceptional for a city its size. Exhibitions in museums and galleries, plays, concerts, operas, dance performances – the range of possibilities is extraordinarily wide.

To begin with, the word “theatre” covers a broader range in Czech than in English. When Czechs say they are going to “the theatre”, this can mean anything – a play, an opera, a stand-up comedy, a musical, an artsy performance, or anything else.

The extensive range covered by the word “theatre” is reflected in the activities of Brno’s two leading institutions in the area of the performing arts. The National Theatre in Brno has individual drama, opera and ballet companies, which perform in three spectacular buildings that it has at its disposal. The Municipal Theatre also brings together actors, singers, dancers and of course musicians, and works out of two state-of-the-art buildings of its own. And in the case of both institutions, each building serves as a venue for performances by more than one of their ensembles. Moreover, dozens of small venues are located all around the city. In those, the alternative scene thrives; you can find there anything from wild improvisations, slam poetry sessions, punk performances criticising politics, silent post-modern plays...

Museums and galleries

Brno has six major public museums. Each of them has facilities at more than one location. In addition to their permanent displays they mount numerous temporary exhibitions throughout the year, ranging from classic art through contemporary pop-cultural phenomena to student projects.

Music

The centrality of music in Czech culture is reflected in an old saying to the effect that “Every Czech is a musician”, something that is doubly true here in Moravia. There’s probably not a single day in the year when there isn’t a generous selection of musical offerings to choose from in Brno, whether at the “high culture” end of the scale or at the “popular” end.

The best way to find out what’s happening musically in Brno is to check out the “Brno – město hudby” (“Brno – music-friendly city”) website.  It covers everything, from Classical music and opera through jazz and pop to folk music and the club scene. Unfortunately, the English pages are still embryonic, but the important information can be gleaned from the Calendar on the Czech part of the website. And your Czech friends can translate the interesting articles and interviews and reviews for you.

"Bucket list" of places to visit in Brno

· Špilberk Castle
· Brno Vegetable Market (Zelný trh) 
· Moravian Square (Moravské náměstí)
· The Brno Dragon
· The Freedom Square (Náměstí Svobody)
· Ossuary under St. James Church (Kostnice u svatého Jakuba)
· Astronomical Clock
· The Indecent Little Man on the Church of St. James
· 11-Year-Old Mozart Statue
· Petrov Cathedral 
· Villa Tugendhat
· Veveři Castle