Revellers brave cold to battle Aids
World urged not to let up in fight against disease, which has killed 30 million
FORMER US president Bill Clinton, singer Elton John and actor Hilary Swank joined thousands of costumed revellers at Europe’s biggest Aids charity event, Vienna’s Life Ball.
Dressed in skimpy costumes for the ball’s 1 001 Nights theme, or simply in extravagant drag, party-goers braved unseasonally chilly temperatures of 8°C for the outdoor party on Saturday.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, addressing the gathering in a video message, urged the world not to let up in the fight against Aids, which has killed 30 million people since the auto-immune disease was first recognised at the start of the 1980s.
“A generation free of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is now in sight,” he told the crowd in the gardens of Vienna’s City Hall. “But unless we intensify our response, a million children could get HIV by 2015.”
The annual ball, in its 21st year, has grown from a small gay-community event to a society fixture, attracting celebrity guests from around the world.
Highlights included a Scheherazade- themed ballet, a fashion show by Italian designer Roberto Cavalli and a performance by American singer and stage actor Adam Lambert.
Those guests wearing costumes judged by the organisers’ “style police” to be exceptional could win half-price admission to the Vienna ball, for which tickets cost up to $3 000.
The event raised more than $2.6 million last year, much of it donated to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to reduce HIV infection among babies in Africa.
Africa accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s cases of HIV, with 1.8 million new HIV infections and 1.2 million dying of Aids-related illnesses in 2011, said the UN. Guests enjoy a show at the Life Ball. Actors perform at the opening of the 24th Life Ball in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday. Revellers gather for the opening ceremony.