Liberation
Festival
Pilsen

About

For thirty-five years, Pilsen has been home to the unique Freedom Festival. The special phenomenon of the celebration of liberation by the American army offers the opportunity to get acquainted with the environment of historical military camps, to get to know the period equipment and the life of soldiers, to experience commented demonstrations of equipment and armament.

The town is visited by dozens of descendants of veterans from the USA and Belgium who participated in the liberation of West Bohemia, and hundreds of owners of historic military equipment from all over Europe.

A traditional part of the celebrations are acts of remembrance, and the highlight of the military program is a unique parade of hundreds of Convoy of Liberty historic military vehicles.

The festival atmosphere of the celebrations is accompanied by a rich musical programme taking place on several stages in the city, featuring swing bands evoking the 1940s, as well as contemporary music stars of all genres. There are also thematic exhibitions, screenings of historical films and documentaries at the Czech Television Cinema and a run for the Memory of the Nation, activities for children and much more.

Liberation of Western Bohemia by the American Army

With the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Allied forces in May 1945, the fighting of the Second World War in Europe came to an end. Most of the territory of the present-day Czech Republic was liberated by the Soviet army, while most of western Bohemia was liberated by the troops of General George Patton's 3rd U.S. Army. General Dwight Eisenhower's order to advance into the interior of Czechoslovakia was sounded on May 4, marking the beginning of key American operations in Bohemia. Pilsen saw the soldiers with the white star on May 6 and became the last place where the Allied troops' journey across the European continent ended.

History of celebrations

The memory of the fighting and fallen Americans was soon after the war, from 1948 onwards, suppressed by the communist regime, which tried to emphasize only the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Any official celebration of the arrival of the American army in Pilsen and western Bohemia was unthinkable. People who tried to organize commemorative events faced persecution and subsequent persecution. It was only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, more than 40 years later, that the celebrations of the American liberation of Pilsen could be restored in full, and today they are one of the most important events in the Czech Republic commemorating important milestones in our history.