Memorial concert for Havel at Lucerna

Close to four thousand people attended a memorial concert for the late ex-president Vaclav Havel at Prague’s Lucerna Palace on Friday evening. The concert, organized by his brother Ivan, featured the rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, which was closely associated with Václav Havel, US singer Suzanne Vega, Garage, Hudba Praha and the Velvet Underground Revival.

The crowd enthusiastically joined in most of the songs, singing the well-known hits of the Plastics and joining Suzanne Vegas in a rendition of Tom’s Diner which she played for Vaclav Havel when they first met in the US years ago.

Performances were interspersed with clips from documentary films about the former president and tributes from friends and celebrities. The memorial concert was shown on a big screen on Wenceslas Square and carried live on Czech TV.