Žatecká Dočesná

Held each September in the town of Žatec, in the heart of Western Bohemia's prime hops-growing country, Žatecká Dočesná is widely regarded as one of the biggest events of its kind anywhere in the European Union. The festival's setting is genuinely significant: Žatec and its surrounding hop fields form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognised for producing some of the most highly prized aromatic hops used in beers around the world.

The festival combines the features of a beer festival and a music festival in equal measure, with a substantial musical programme running alongside tastings of more than 100 beer types from breweries across the Czech Republic. Given the town's direct role in supplying the raw ingredient behind so much of the world's beer, the festival carries a genuine sense of terroir rarely found at beer events — this isn't simply a place that drinks a lot of beer, but the literal source of one of its most essential ingredients.

For visitors with a specific interest in how beer is actually made, from the hop field to the glass, Žatecká Dočesná offers a rare opportunity to see and taste that entire chain in one place.