Prague’s largest festival to host a posthumous celebration of Olga Havlová’s 80^th birthday.  

Olga Havlová would celebrate her 80^th birthday on 11 July, 2013. The Olga Havlová Foundation, her former friends and colleagues with United Islands by Česká spořitelna have prepared a program block for 21 June to commemorate Olga Havlová. The United Islands festival is held on 20 – 22 June in the Ladronka park in Prague.

“There is only one way of remembering Lady Olga: music and theater that she loved. However, even the youngest visitors of  the festival will not be bored,” says Milena Černá, the director of Committee of Good Will – The Olga Havlová Foundation, and adds: “Come with us and remember the life and work of her exceptional personality!”  Tribute to Olga Havlová will host performances of The Plastic People of the Universe, Vlasta Třešňák, Divadlo na Tahu theater, the theater troupe of Gymnázium Olgy Havlové high school, the chanteuse Sylvie Krobová and USylvie KrobováHavlová and Už jsme doma band with Romek Hanzlík, former guitarist of F.P.B. and Už jsme doma.

The tribute event will also include the exhibition “Olga Havlová in Photographs and Memories” organized by the Gymnázium Olgy Havlové high school from Ostrava and the Civic Association PANT; the event is a collection of rare contemporary photographs and memories of Olga’s friends, colleagues and people who just met her and the rare encounter has remained in their memories. The exhibition opens on 21 June, 2013, at 1 p.m. at Ladronka.

In spite of the complications ensuing from the abrupt change of its location, United Islands by Česká spořitelna, Prague’s largest festival, is going to perform in full. The helpfulness of Prague 6 district has permitted the relocation of the festival to the Ladronka park. The festival will host 195 music projects on 7 open-air stages and 9 clubs where the program continues after 10 p.m.  United Islands by Česká spořitelna celebrates its 10^th anniversary from 20^th to 22^nd June in Prague.

The Year of Olga Havlová

The tribute is part of The Year of Olga Havlová organized by the Committee of Good Will – The Olga Havlová Foundation in January. The commemoration started with a Holy Mass for Olga Havlová administered by Bishop Václav Malý in the St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral. A travelling exhibition of photographs of the life of Olga Havlová for high schools has been prepared in cooperation with Gymnázium Olgy Havlové in Ostrava. A similar exhibition will be held in the municipal library in Prachatice. A book with memories of Lady Olga has also been published. The memories have been contributed by her former colleagues, friends, bodyguards and volunteers of the foundation. Participants in the events are Divadlo na Zábradlí, Václava Havel Library, Originální videožurnál, Palác Akropolis as well as Olga Havlová’s friends and contemporaries.

Olga Havlová (1933 – 1996)

Olga Havlová spent a lifetime supporting the conditions for the birth of a civic society. That is also her legacy to the foundation she established in 1990 in the tradition of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. The principal goal of the Goodwill Committee – the Olga Havlová Foundation is to help people of poor health, who are abandoned or discriminated in their participation in the society. Lady Olga received numerous awards, both Czech and International, for her contribution to the civic society: The Stiftelsen Arets Budeie Foundation from Norway awarded her the prestigious prize “Woman of the Year 1991”, The Netherlands gave her the children’s prize “Baroness from the Land of all Times”, she received the Přemysl Pitter Medal and was the Czech Republic’s “Woman of the Year 1995”. Two years later, she was posthumously awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk for her outstanding contributions to democracy and human rights. 1995 surveys showed that Olga Havlová was considered the most important woman in the country, she also received acclaim in abroad. It is her merit that the handicapped have ceased to be an “indecent” topic.

Information stalls of NGO’s:

Výbor dobré vůle – Nadace Olgy Havlové, Bona, o.p.s., Knihovna Václava Havla, Elpida, o.p.s., Nový prostor, o.s., Fokus Praha o.s., Nadační fond Slunce pro všechny.

Links to the artists:

Plastic People of the Universe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvuZcq6qiAY

Vlasta Třešňák http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jQVsJdylaY

Už jsme doma hrají FPB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzgkXfuFvTs

Sylvie Krobová http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqShfUzi7Yo

Divadlo na tahu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkn6giQwuX4

Gymnázium Olgy Havlové http://www.gyohavl.cz/divadelni-krouzek-gyohavl.html