ROXY Prague

The cinema that opened with the walls still damp

Between 1990 and 1991, the architect Jan Mayer went down for the first time to the old cinema at Dlouhá 33 and found patches of mold up to three meters on the ceiling and about thirty centimeters of water in the room. That late twenties art déco space had been the Bio Roxy and had been closed for some time. The Linhart Foundation occupied it after the Alternativa action, with a clear idea of independence: to repair and install only what was essential, without getting into debt. There is no clear opening day. The oldest preserved poster announces, from May 15 to 17, 1992, the charity exhibition Fucking Changes. The concert that is usually taken as the opening is that of Fugazi, in June of that same year: they had to bring in a stage, lights, and a temporary high-voltage connection into a room that was still half-finished. It was born in 1992.

The night the DJs took over the club

The first international reputation came with punk and hardcore, but the pulse that ended up defining the house was that of the dancefloor. At the end of the nineties, with David Clark at the helm, the dancing was organized into monthly nights: Popelka, Sushi, Mix, and Climax. The latter, by Chris Sadler, started in November 1998 and remained one of the longest-running residencies at the venue. The house and techno stars who grew up with the club passed through here, and the drum and bass labels Hospital and RAM made Prague a second home. In 1998, on the top floor, the foundation concentrated the café, the gallery, and the NoD theater —No Dimension—, while downstairs the night continued.

Water up to the stairs

In the summer of 2002, the rising of the Vltava covered bars, the stage, and the amplifiers embedded in the walls. The water reached the upper staircase and soaked the balconies. The material damage was estimated then at about two million Czech koruna. With the public, the team, and a collection, the club reopened, at least in part, after a month. The end of the decade brought another drowning, this time of debt. In May 2009, Jaroslav Stanko came in as a crisis manager —he remains in charge— and cut back on risky concerts to sustain the program with reliable DJs. In January 2011, the closure was announced due to safety regulations and the noise that leaked into the homes above; the deficiencies were corrected in weeks. From that renovation came Roxy Visuals, the semi-annual rotation of pieces installed in the club itself.

A twenties cinema with object sound

In September 2025, the line array gave way to a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape: 46 boxes in spatial sound, four subwoofers hung over the stage, and two main ones underneath, designed to also fill the dead space under the balcony. The venue distributes the capacity into three zones: main room for 750 people standing or 330 seated, lounge for 100 standing, and balcony for 150 standing. It remains a converted cinema, with a vaulted brick basement, four bars, a cloakroom, and, on the top floor, the Golden Bone café. The current programming mixes club nights —from drum and bass to techno— with concerts in the same stage box. The club receives about 250,000 visits per year.