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The International Music Academy in Pilsen (about 100 kilometers south west of Prague) is a month summer course teaching young people the violin. Even though it is the first time that the academy is taking place in Pilsen, the course builds on the much older tradition of the Summer Violin School in Meadowmount, New York.

While for most of the year Prague concert halls offer dozens of concerts every week, in the summer months, when people leave for their holidays most concerts are aimed at foreign tourists - almost every day you can hear several rather ropy renderings of Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Mozart's Requiem in churches around the city.

If you want to visit a theatre in Prague, summer is not the best time. Even though there are dozens of theatres in the city performing all year round, a lot of them close for the summer months of July and August, others have only a few performances during the summer. Two theatres decided to take advantage of this gap and organized a small theatre festival called "Leto u more" - "Summer by the Sea".

The 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which ends on Saturday night, has featured a whopping 280 or so films, including 16 world premieres and 33 European or international premieres. But is it hard for Karlovy Vary to secure top quality movies, given the competition from other A certification festivals, like Cannes and Berlin? Here's Karlovy Vary programme director Julietta Zacharova.

Every year at the beginning of summer the East-Bohemian town of Litomysl commemorates its famous native, the composer Bedrich Smetana, and in his honour organizes an international opera festival - Smetana's Litomysl. Even though Smetana's family moved out of Litomysl as early as 1831 when he was only seven, Litomysl locals are very proud of their most famous citizen and celebrated him already during his life. Later, after his death, Litomysl always made a point of commemorating the anniversary of his birth. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague together with the City Gallery has prepared a major photography exhibition. The show reviews the development of Czech photography through the 20th century.You can see more than 1,200 photographs including pictures by the best known Czech photographers beginning with the Art Nouveau Frantisek Drtikol, the avant-garde Jaroslav Rosler or Jaromir Funke, continuing with Josef Sudek's famous still-lifes and ending with contemporary artists such as Josef Koudelka or Tono Stano.

The famous Venice Biennale - a major exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every second year - has been growing in popularity in recent years. The idea of presenting contemporary art of different nations became so popular that a number of cities worldwide started to establish similar events. Prague organized its first biennale two years ago. This year the event continues in the Czech capital but because of arguments between the original Prague Biennale organizers it has split up this year into two rival events.

Last week Prague locals as well as visitors had the chance to see 166 performances of theater, poetry, dance, music, puppets, improvisation and other shows, mostly by amateurs. The Prague Fringe Festival was established just three years ago, but the history of fringe festivals goes back to 1947 in Edinburgh. At the time some of the performers were not allowed to perform at the city's larger official festival. In response they established their own "fringe" performances. Today the idea has spread to about 50 towns around the world, mostly in English

Jiri Skopek is a Czech-born architect who left the country of his birth with his when he was just 19. Studying in London Jiri soon became involved in projects that included building a recording studio for the legendary The Who, and in the 1970s designing the first solar house in Britain's Milton Keynes. In later years he worked on the Arabian Peninsula, and - in the eve of the 90s - drew up the master plan for one of the most recognisable sites in Toronto.

Many visitors to Prague, as well as locals believe that the most beautiful month of the year is May. After the long cold winter, it is the month of pleasantly warm weather with lawns turning green and parks full of blossoming trees. Another thing associated with this month in Prague is music - it is the time of the famous Prague Spring Festival.