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Austria holds "Festival of Joy" concert to mark end of WWII

Xinhua, May 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

About 15,000 people joined free concert "Festival of Joy" ("Fest der Freude") at Heldenplatz (Hero 's Square) in Vienna on Friday evening to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Numerous prominent politicians were in attendance, including President Heinz Fischer, Chancellor Werner Faymann, Vice- Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, and President of the National Council Doris Bures, with holocaust survivors also in attendance, ORF reported.

The Vienna Symphonic Orchestra was also present, playing Beethoven's Symphony No.9. Chancellor Faymann warned in his speech of right-wing tendencies in Europe, saying that both prior to the Second World War and in the present day poverty and unemployment both were and are a nurturing ground for such thinking.

He said a strong, social Europe could counteract these tendencies in the present.

Willi Mernyi, chairman of the co-organizer of the event -- the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, said in an address to the crowd that even today attacks on other cultures and religions are taking place, and that even 70 years after the end of the Nazi regime right-wing populists are spreading "fear and agitation."

Friday evening's event marked the third year the Festival of Joy has been held, with crowds increasing each year -- 10,000 visitors in 2013 and 12,000 in 2014, the organizers said. Endite