Section Archive Stepping Out
Stepping Out Compilation - The final set
Stepping Out, our bi-monthly special covering nightlife in the Czech
capital, is now wrapping up after almost one year. In today's final
edition we take you back over the last eight episodes - a reminder of some
of the places we've been.
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A Mecca for House music
Six years ago Prague witnessed the opening of Mecca, a venue that has
become one of the most influential dance clubs in the city. Found in
Prague's mostly industrial Holesovice district, Mecca focuses
primarily on DJ parties and House music. Last week, for instance, it
played host to Germany's famous Milk N Sugar, who "let a bit of the
sunshine in". It was either be there or be square for those into the
club scene. More
Tony Duchacek & Garage: a seminal underground band plays Vagon
Tony Duchacek and his band Garaz (Garage) have now been a staple on the
Czech underground music scene for more than twenty years. Like their more
well-known counterparts, the Plastic People of the Universe, with whom
they collaborated at length artistically, Duchacek and his band-mates
continue to play Prague's most interesting rock venues: drawing fans old
and new, among them kids who can barely remember the days of communism,
and are just out to have a good time, to listen to some driving music and
ska-like sax. You can dance to it on the darkened dance floor and
inevitably everybody does.
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A walking tour of "esoteric" Prague
The din of the crowd you can hear behind me are hundreds of tourists who
have filled into Prague's Old Town Square on a simply gorgeous Thursday
evening. The clock has just struck six but and a few of us are waiting for
Jana, our guide, who will lead us on a walking tour called "The Ghost
Trail". The flyer has promised a journey into darkness and Prague's
haunted streets - a tall order on an evening when the sun continues to
shine brightly and finding abandoned alleyways will be difficult. Dozens
of travellers walk by or sit on benches, draped over their backpacks.
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Theatre Ypsilon - Prague's very own Vaudeville
In this edition I stepped out to Divadlo Ypsilon, a more melodic name than
its English counterpart Theatre "Y". It has been in existence
since 1963 and last week the theatre celebrated its 40th anniversary where
actors from the company put on an informal performance. Snippets from the
theatre's repertoire were played for the occasion exhibiting the
versatility and the musicality of all the performers. I spoke with Jan
Jiran who has been a resident actor and musical director at Divaldo
Ypsilon for almost twenty years. He describes the theatre as having a
"special" kind of humour.
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Under a television sky
It's probably too big a club to spend just any old night, but as a venue
for large gatherings, hip-hop, drum n' base, or punk-based performances,
Matrix, one of Prague's newest venues, is not a bad pick. Located in
Zizkov, just under Vitkov Hill, it's easy to get to and represents a
return to hard-edged industrial settings - unlike many polished and
altogether far too compliant and comfortable clubs, which predominate
today, having long lost their bite and teenage visceral thrill. (If they
ever had it). The punk/industrial aesthetic lives on in several classic
hold-outs scattered around Prague, but in Matrix it has resurfaced in a
new package - the form of a gutted factory - a former meat-storage plant,
ready to offer the public a wide range of musical styles.
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Dickens' play in Prague: dedicated cast - but lacklustertext - leave feeling of opportunity lost
Since Stepping Out began last year we've tried to profile some of the most
interesting and attractive venues in Prague - as well as the acts that
play them. This week I decided to concentrate above all on the act. An
evening performance by English-language theatre troupe TNT - a new
production of Charles Dickens' famous Oliver Twist, arriving for eighteen
performances.
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Visiting Utopia - karaoke hits Prague at last!
Prague is pretty progressive on most things but until recently lacked a
venue providing a service long adored in other parts of the world -
karaoke - that sublime form of entertainment from Japan that brings out
the Elvis or Tiny Tim in all of us. Whether you have a voice that makes
listeners swoon, or raises the fur on the cat's back instead - in Prague
you have a place to go at last. It's called Utopie - Utopia in English -
and it is a bar located on the city's massive Charles Square, open from
dusk till dawn, 6 nights a week.
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Going to Tramtarie - a children's indoor playground in the centre of town
Prague is a city with no shortage of bars, discos, and even cocktail
lounges but until now it may have been something of a problem to
"step out" if you had children. No more. A new venue has opened
in the city centre where you can meet with friends and take your little
ones all at the same time - a place called Teta Tramtarie - found almost
unexpectedly in busy Jungmannova Street. Tramtarie - which means something
like wonderland in English, is at once a café, a playground, a children's
bookstore - and even a children's theatre, frequented by parents with
kids, but still modish enough to be visited by artsy adolescent or
twenty-something crowds.
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Stepping Out Compilation - the First 10
Stepping Out began in August and no club seemed more fitting to visit first
than Palac Akropolis, one of Prague's most innovative hang-out spots. It
has one of the coolest bars in the city - and remains a Prague favourite
late at night. "So far, it seems pretty good. I mean like, I got
here, and everyone has been partying... I love it."
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