Hip Hop Kemp Cancelled a Day Before the Start: Musicians and Suppliers Left Without Payment

The Hip Hop Kemp 2026 festival was suddenly cancelled just a day before it was due to open — organisers sent a mass email to participants on Thursday evening, around 9 p.m. Musicians, festivalgoers and suppliers who had already arrived at the venue, a former military complex in the Plzeň region, learned of the cancellation at the very last minute and were left out of pocket.

Petra Vlková, manager of the band Prago Union, said the group had played the festival every year since its very first season but had never experienced anything like this. The band's fee had not been paid in advance, and finding a replacement gig on such short notice was next to impossible. A foreign performer, who asked to remain anonymous, told a similar story: the music community is tightly knit, he said, and what happened is "an incredible embarrassment" whose consequences will be hard to undo. He said he was concerned about whether other international artists who had already travelled to Czechia for the show had been paid.

Losses for Suppliers and Brewers

Jiří Poezný, a commercial representative for a brewery in Pelhřimov, is already tallying up the damage. He said his staff had loaded the beer kegs on Wednesday, and the truck set off from Vysočina to the Plzeň region on Thursday. Once on site, the beer was unloaded and prepared for sale — and only then did they learn the festival wasn't happening. "Why didn't anyone tell us sooner? This could have been stopped much earlier," Poezný said angrily. He doesn't expect anyone to reimburse the cost of transport or staff wages, and is simply relieved they managed to haul the beer back.

"An International Disgrace"

Jaroslav Berbr from the Plzeň Region, who had arrived at the site on Thursday evening, called the situation an international disgrace. He said hundreds of people from various countries had turned up — he came across a van with Spanish plates, as well as visitors from the Netherlands, Lithuania and neighbouring countries. Yet the site had neither electricity nor any proper infrastructure in place.

On the festival's website, organisers initially posted only a brief, emotional statement: circumstances had conspired against them, even the weather had let down the festival's sun-themed logo, the lineup hadn't drawn enough visitors, and the organisers were unable to bring the season to a dignified close. The bottom line: Hip Hop Kemp 2026 is cancelled, and there will be no gathering this year.

Organiser Stops Responding

Festival organiser Radek Maliník declined to comment on Friday morning, promising to publish a press release, but by evening nothing had appeared on the website. Throughout the day he stopped answering calls and messages, and ignored questions about whether ticket holders would get their money back. As a reminder, last week a two-day ticket cost 3,300 crowns and a one-day ticket 1,800 crowns.

Read also: 9 best pubs and breweries in Prague: from monastery beer to Karlín's craft newcomers

Source: novinky.cz