Pavel Kloupar, the founder of Sázavafest, who brought American producer Moby and DJ Paul Oakenfold to the Czech Republic, died at the age of 55 after a serious illness. With reference to presenter Iva Lecká, the music magazine Headliner informed about it. “All of you who knew Pavel and loved him, because he was a very good person, give him a silent memory,” Lecká wrote on Facebook.
Kloupar founded Sázavafest in 2000 as a one-day event to support wheelchair users, acting as its manager or director. The mainly music festival held every year in the vicinity of the Sázava River moved from Týnec nad Sázavou through the natural area Ostrov in Sázava in the Benešov region and on to Kácovo or the former barracks in Benešov, since 2013 acts in Světlá nad Sázavou.
In 2005, he broke the 10,000 visitor mark for the first time, four years later he welcomed Moby as his biggest star up to that time, to which over 20,000 people came. On the contrary, in the following years, “its importance and attendance decreased”, describing Headliner magazine, leading up to the event changing hands in late 2016.
In addition, Kloupar organized other Prague events with his company In promotion, such as the Stromovka Music Garden festival at the Exhibition Center, the Spring Sázavafest at the now-defunct Abaton club, or concerts by the Offspring and Boney M bands at the Exhibition Center. For a while he was also the dramaturg of the Retro Music Hall club in Francouzská Street.
In 2017, Kloupar organized the first Moravafest in Tvrdonice near Břeclav, where Mňága and Žďorp or Xindl X performed.