Výstaviště | 5-7 May 2023

Brno Exhibition Centre (Brněnské výstaviště) is the crucial part of the trip – this is where the anime convention Animefest Brno 2023. But it is nonetheless an interesting site – it occupies the site on 667k m², has 15 exhibition halls and visitor capacity of 60k people.

The city of Brno has some traditions of the fair industry. Since 1821 regular trade exhibitions have been held there, including the Imperial Jubilee Exhibition in 1888, the largest exhibition held in Brno until that time.

In 1923, the city council decides that they are going to build a new international exhibition centre, the construction took part between 1927 and 1928. In 1928, Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia was held in a newly built complex – designed in the modern, functionalist style.

The area was privatized as Brno Trade Fairs and Exhibitions Co. in 1991 and taken over (in 2/3) by Messe Düsseldorf in 1998 (as you can see - the pathfinding system here is really similar to the one in Düsseldorf, and if you can't see that, please proceed to Dokomi 2020 and Dokomi 2022, where you can crearily see how similar they are). It was reacquired by the Statutory City of Brno in 2016 (compare February and June).

The oldest Pavilion A was the main pavilion for the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia. Pavilion B, Pavilion C, Pavilion Y and Pavilion Z were built as part of the expansion of the exhibition center at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. Pavilion E, Pavilion F and Pavilion G were created later, at the end of the 20th century. The one-story circular entrance building was extended in the early 1960s (but built earlier), and a high-rise administrative building was put at its southern end.