French trio cancels Lebanon concert

Over 22,000 concert-goers evacuated

BEIRUT, July 30, (AFP): French classical group Trio Wanderer cancelled its Sunday evening concert in Lebanon’s Baalbek International Festival, a day after activists lambasted it for playing in Israel last year.

A source at the festival confirmed to AFP on Saturday that Trio Wanderer would no longer be playing, but denied that it was because of political pressure.

“The concert was cancelled because of personal reasons pertaining to Vincent Coq,” the group’s pianist, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Trio Wanderer was not immediately available for comment.

The celebrated festival is one of the most popular cultural events and is held in Baalbek’s spectacular Roman ruins, drawing large crowds.

Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, an avid enemy of Israel, has a strong presence in the modern city by the same name.

On Saturday, the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon (CBSIL) published a letter addressed to the French trio on its website.

It said Trio Wanderer’s 2016 concert in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat “insulted the martyrs of Lebanon and of Baalbek”.

“We demand that you follow the example of hundreds of musicians and international artists that have declared their support for the cultural boycott of the apartheid state,” the letter read.

A boycott campaign over Israel’s five-decade occupation of Palestinian territory has been under way for years, spearheaded by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement.

Also: MADRID:

More than 22,000 people were evacuated Saturday when the stage at an electronic music festival near Barcelona erupted in flames, sending revellers running.

Firefighters rushed to the Tomorrowland festival in Santa Coloma de Gramenet in northeastern Spain, and eventually managed to extinguish the blaze which caused no injuries, they said in a statement.

A total of 22,143 people had to be evacuated from the festival, they added.