Hiroshima kicks off music festival to promote peace

Aug. 1, Kyodo - A month-long international music festival bringing together artists from 30 countries to promote peace opened Sunday with three concerts held simultaneously in the city.

The ''August in Hiroshima 1999 World Music Festival,'' sponsored by the Hiroshima municipal government and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, comprises 22 musical events, including pop, jazz and classical concerts and an opera.

In an opening ceremony held in front of the A-bomb Dome, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba stressed the importance of cultural exchanges and said that the event is aimed at encouraging people suffering from war, conflict or poverty ''to build together with them a peaceful world.''

Performances by singers native to Hiroshima followed Akiba's speech. Some 200 people listened to songs about the city's atomic bombing and Japanese folk songs sung by American singer Susan Osborn.

Osborn sang in both English and Japanese, as she did at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Winter Paralympics Games, when she performed the popular ''Sukiyaki Song.''

Two other concerts, featuring choirs and musical groups, also took place in the city.

Picture Caption: The August in Hiroshima's Performers with the A-bomb dome for a background singing "Akatonbo" with prayers for Peace (Aug 1st, 7:00 PM, special stage along the Motoyasu river, Nakaku, Hiroshima)

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