Dame Vera removes name from D-day beach concert
IT HAS been billed as a celebration to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day: a concert on a Normandy beach that purported to have the backing of Dame Vera Lynn.
However, the “Forces’ Sweetheart” asked for her name to be removed from the organisers’ website after the event attracted opposition from veterans and their families, who warned it was “shameful” and disrespectful” to “dance on the graves” of war heroes. Dame Vera, 101, agreed to join Liberty Concerts’ “board of recommendation” as an honorary member last year before any specific details about the concert had been agreed.
But when organisers announced that the event would be held on Sword Beach on June 6 2019, which will coincide with ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the public reaction was highly critical.
The concert is expected to start with films, parachutists and stories about the landings. “International top artists and DJS” will then take to the stage under the concert’s slogan “Fight for Freedom”. Organisers said it was intended to “inform and involve” millennials.
Virginia Lewis-jones, Dame Vera’s daughter and spokesman, said her mother had “no idea” what kind of event it was going to be when she gave it her backing.
“She was baffled when told that Michiel Florusse, one of the Dutch organisers, had been telling campaigners that the concert had her support. It was subsequently agreed that she would be removed from the board until he had met with the veterans, their families and opponents of the event next month in Portsmouth.”
Such was the strength of feeling conveyed on social media against the concert that the organisers eventually blocked any further comment about it on their Facebook page.
Nigel Hay wrote: “The 75th anniversary of Normandy is a commemoration. It is not a party, nor a circus. This beach is a totally inappropriate venue to hold a pop concert.”
Jean Ellwood pointed out that many families had scattered the ashes of their fathers and grandfathers there. “It is a sacred area, and a total desecration to hold a concert there.”
A statement released on behalf of Dame Vera said that she was “always keen to support charitable endeavours, especially those that benefit veterans.
“Those of us old enough to remember the D-day Landings and the generations that followed us, owe our freedom to the servicemen who fought so bravely, and the thousands who gave their lives in Normandy.”
Mr Florusse said there were no plans to change the date or location, and that the organisers hoped to reassure those opposed to the event on July 21.