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FESTIVAL

Large police presence for Vienna fair

A traditional Austrian wine growers fair in Dobling, Vienna, will have a heavier police presence this year after several people were brutally attacked at previous events.

Large police presence for Vienna fair
Visitors at last year's Neustifter Kirtag. Photo: Hans Sauerstein

Last year the son of a famous Viennese winemaker was injured in a brawl, and the young FPÖ politician Maximilian Krauss was also attacked with a glass. 

Described as Austria’s largest folk festival, the Neustifter Kirtag takes place from August 22nd to 25th. It’s scheduled to start on Friday at 5.30pm.

People are asked to come wearing their traditional national costume (Tracht) and can enjoy regional wines and food and traditional music during the four day festival, which attracts thousands of visitors each year.

Admission is free, and the area will be closed to traffic.

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FESTIVAL

France’s Fête de la musique ‘will go ahead, with masks and a curfew’

France's famous summer music festival the Fête de la musique will go ahead, but with health restrictions in place, says the culture minister.

France's Fête de la musique 'will go ahead, with masks and a curfew'
Photo: ABDULMONAM EASSA / AFP

Culture minister Roselyn Bachelot, taking part in a Q&A session with readers of French newspaper le Parisien, confirmed that the annual summer festival will go ahead this year on its usual date of June 21st.

The festival date is normally marked with thousands of events across France, from concerts in tiny villages to huge open-air events in big cities and street-corner gigs in local neighbourhoods.

Last year the festival did go ahead, in a scaled-down way, and Bachelot confirmed that the 2021 event will also happen, but with restrictions.

She said: “It will be held on 21st June and will not be subject to the health passport.

“People will be able to dance, but it will be a masked party with an 11pm curfew.”

Under France’s phased reopening plan, larger events will be allowed again from June 9th, but some of them will require a health passport (with either a vaccination certificate or a recent negative test) to enter.

The Fête de la musique, however, is generally focused around lots of smaller neighbourhood concerts.

The curfew is being gradually moved back throughout the summer before – if the health situation permits – being scrapped entirely on June 30th.

Bachelot added: “I appeal to everyone’s responsibility.

“The rate of 50 percent of people vaccinated should have been reached by then, so we will reach an important level of immunity.”

The Fête de la musique is normally France’s biggest street party, with up to 18,000 events taking place across the country on the same day.

It’s hugely popular, despite being (whisper it) the idea of an American – the concept is the brainchild of American Joel Cohen, when he was working as a music producer for French National Radio (France Musique) in the 1970s.

By 1982 the French government put its weight behind the idea and made it an official event and it’s been a fixture in the calendar ever since. 

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