A MUSICAL tribute showing ‘solidarity and strength’ was paid at the Redditch Music Festival on Saturday (July 16) for those who died in the Nice attack in France last Thursday.
The bandstand event on Church Green was attended by MP Karen Lumley, Mayor Councillor Joe Baker, Redditch Borough Council leader Bill Hartnett, and Muhammad Rehman, the imam from the Redditch Central Mosque.
They were joined members of the public to celebrate local talent and show support for those affected by recent events in southern France where 84 were killed in a random attack as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Coun Hartnett said: “This event demonstrates the unity and community spirit in Redditch.
“We were all horrified when we saw the images from Nice, so whatever our views, opinions, race or religion, we in Redditch wstand shoulder to shoulder with the French nation.”
A Union flag and a French Tricolour were flown side by side at the stage while La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, was played by Betty Whitticker on the violin with French national Simone Hughes singing the words.
She said: “I am deeply affected by this latest atrocity and I feel a great shock and concern for all the French people affected.”
Local band Him And Her also played a cover of REM’s Everybody Hurts in tribute to the victims.
The bandstand event followed the lowering to half mast of the Union flag and the Tricolour at the town hall last Friday (July 15), where members of the Muslim community and two French nationals joined Mayor Baker, Coun Hartnett and Mrs Lumley.
Mrs Lumley said: “We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible way.
“The people that perpetrate these assaults seek to destroy our way of life, and I say right now that the terrorists must never be allowed to win.”
Coun Baker added: “We must not bow down to terror but stand united with our friends and neighbours and show solidarity and strength.”
