The 10 best things to do in Prague this weekend: November 17–19, 2023

Taking place on Nov. 18, the Night of Open Theaters offers night tours, theater workshops, discussions with creators, shows, and performances, either free of charge or for a symbolic entrance fee. For a list of participating theaters in Prague, some of which include performances with English subtitles or surtitles, head to the Noc Divadel website. 

Kino Aero honors French director Luc Besson with a retrospective that includes The Last Battle and Subway on Nov. 17 (with English subtitles). The Ukrainian Film Week brings contemporary Ukrainian cinema (including English-friendly films) to the French Institute in Prague, the Cervantes Institute, the Goethe Institute, and the British Council until Nov. 21.

For lovers of fishing and fish dishes, Kalendova Chabrybárna prepared an all-day event called Historical Catch on Nov. 18, which includes the chance to fish in the Republika pond, eat a traditional fish dish from Kherson, catfish liver pate, and fish salads, and purchase live fish caught on the spot. 

Burt Turrido. An Opera is at The New Stage on Nov. 17, as part of the Prague Crossroads Festival (with English surtitles). The Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s first opera brings together a cataclysmic storm, an immaculate pregnancy, a murder, a love triangle, a mock execution, a birth, an alien invasion and kidnapping, and much more. 

Head to the Liechtenstein Palace on Nov. 18 for a performance of the internationally renowned Parnas Ensemble that will perform a selection of classical music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonín Dvořák, and Bedřich Smetana. 

Automat Matuška turns one on Nov. 18, a chance to celebrate the vending machine (or automat in Czech) for Matuška beer; the Prague 6 hotspot is the perfect way to indulge in your love for the artisanal beer, which has been brewed since 2009 without filtration or pasteurization. The celebration includes a special birthday menu and beers, as well as music. 

The beloved fairytale Cinderella comes in an ice show performed by leading Czech figure skaters, accompanied by live singing, on Nov. 18 at Centrum Černý Most. The highlight of the program will be the lighting of Christmas decorations, marking the start of the festive season. 

Learn more about the residents of one of Prague’s toniest districts with Open House Praha’s English-language tour of Jewish Residents of Bubeneč Villa District I on Nov. 18. In addition to seeing neighborhood landmarks, the tour is a chance to hear stories of the most important entrepreneurs of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic as well as of lesser-known families who had lived here before WWII. 

Radnice Letňany will host on Nov. 19 the Krampus parade of devils from the Krkonoše Mountains, an occasion to revel in the darker side of the festive season in an enjoyable way that includes food and drinks. In much of Central Europe, a horned demon named Krampus comes for the bad apples, whom he beats and drags off in a sack to only he knows where.

On Nov. 17 and 18, experience the Botanical Garden’s Fata Morgana tropical greenhouse through an evening tour called Jungle that doesn’t sleep. The tour explores the world of tropical plants and creatures abuzz with life during night hours, such as plants blooming after sunset to the tunes of a concert of tropical frogs.