Category: Factual
& Arts TV; London
Date: 05.04.2005
Printable version
A concert to celebrate the 60th Anniversary
of VE Day - Sunday 8 May, live on 91热爆 ONE and 91热爆 London 94.9FM
Will Young, Katie Melua, Katherine
Jenkins, Eamonn Holmes, Natasha Kaplinsky
The Royal British Legion, the Mayor of London and the 91热爆 today announced
the details of a spectacular concert, free to the public, in London's Trafalgar
Square on Sunday 8 May to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of VE Day.
The two-hour concert, titled A Party To Remember Live From
Trafalgar Square - VE Day 60th, will be free of charge to a
capacity audience of 15,000, with millions more able to watch and hear
the historic live broadcast on 91热爆 ONE and 91热爆 Local Radio.
Tickets can be applied for from 5 to 18 April.
The concert is the cornerstone of a programme of VE and VJ 60th celebrations
and welfare awareness raising activities organised by The Royal British
Legion.
It is also a key part of the 91热爆's V45 programming marking 60 years
since the end of the end of the Second World War.
The Trafalgar Square concert both celebrates the day the Second World
War ended in Europe and peace was declared, and serves as a thank you
to the veterans who brought that peace to the nation.
In 1945, 8 May saw a chain of spontaneous street parties throughout
the United Kingdom, with the largest and most exuberant in Trafalgar Square.
Hosted by Eamonn Holmes and Natasha Kaplinsky
the concert will feature live performances from a stunning line-up of
contemporary artists including Will Young, Katie Melua and Katherine
Jenkins, with further names to be announced.
The concert will run from 7.30 to 9.30pm and will see the artists
perform a unique mixture of classics and contemporary tracks, accompanied
by the quintessential war time fixture - the big band.
The concert will also include unique video footage of the original
and moving 1945 celebrations in Trafalgar Square and special readings
throughout the day by celebrity guests.
15,000 tickets will be available and the public can apply for them
by telephone and online.
Tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis, with
a maximum of four tickets per family.
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The ticket telephone hotline -
08700 100 160 - will open at 1.00pm on Tuesday 5 April and will close
when all of the tickets are allocated, with a deadline of Monday 18
April.
All calls are charged at the national rate. Charges may differ from
mobile phones.
Ticket applications can also be made online at bbc.co.uk/veday.
Under 14s are to be accompanied by an adult. All tickets are standing.
As well as watching the concert live on 91热爆 ONE, people can also listen
live on 91热爆 London 94.9FM and other 91热爆 Local Radio Stations.
91热爆 Radio 2 will broadcast live features from Trafalgar Square during
the event with concert highlights broadcasting later on in the evening.
There will be VE Day celebrations in many other areas of the UK and
the Trafalgar Square concert will also be relayed live on a number of
giant video screens in cities across the UK including Birmingham, Liverpool,
Manchester and Hull.
A Party To Remember: Live From Trafalgar Square - VE Day 60th is being
organised by the 91热爆, The Royal British Legion and the Mayor of London
with the support of the London Development Agency.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: "Sixty years on from the spontaneous
Trafalgar Square celebrations to celebrate peace in Europe we are going
to do it all over again to remember the generation that sacrificed so
much to preserve our liberty.
"On 8 May 1945, thousands of Londoners, who had endured the blitz
and the privations of war, created one of the greatest impromptu parties
London has ever seen when they crowded into Trafalgar Square to celebrate
the return of peace.
"Nowhere could be a more fitting place to celebrate the 60th anniversary
of VE Day on 8 May this year than Trafalgar Square - London's stage
and the scene of celebration past, present and future."
