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The Spasskaya Tower festival of military music to end in Moscow with a spectacular show

About 60,000 people have visited the festival on Red Square since it started a week ago

MOSCOW, September 8 (Itar-Tass) - The 5th International Festival of Military Music, Spasskaya Bashnya (the Spasskaya Tower), will end with a spectacular show of army bands from 13 countries on Sunday. Well-known French singer Mireille Mathieu, the festival’s permanent guest, will appear on Red Square outside the Kremlin walls alongside with military musicians.

The best army orchestras of Austria, Belarus, Britain, China, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Slovenia, Finland, France, Switzerland, South Korea and Japan. The show will be accompanied by magnificent fireworks. The festival’s motto is “To Revive Traditions and Preserve History.”

“The festival was a success in all aspects. The stands were full to capacity every day despite rain,” Sergei Smirnov, the chief organizer of the Spasskaya Tower festival, told Itar-Tass.

He said that the band of the Suvorov Military College was the festival’s favorite. “Our bands are always highly professional. That is why they always represent Russia worthily at this festival,” Smirnov went on to say.

“Tickets were sold out every day. About 60,000 people have visited the festival on Red Square since it started a week ago. Thanks to television and Internet broadcasts, the festival can be seen by over a hundred million people,” Smirnov stressed.

Smirnov also said that the organizers will continue “The Spasskaya Tower to Children” project.

“About seven thousand seats on the stands were given to veterans, children and invalids. Part of the proceeds will be transferred as relief aid to the flood-stricken areas in the Russian Far East. The festival takes place exclusively on sponsor’s money,” Smirnov said.

The festival’s organizing committee has received enough applications to form programs until 2017. The festival’s public council will decide which bands are going to perform next year. The WWI outbreak will be the festival’s main theme in 2014.