AC/DC gig ‘could destroy rare bird nesting site’
Hard rockers AC/DC have been urged to cancel a concert at an abandoned airstrip in Austria amid fears that endangered birds nesting on the site could be wiped out if the event goes ahead.
Organisers in the city of Wels have already sold 80,000 tickets but WWF Austria has called on the Australian band, behind monster hits including “You Shook Me All Night Long”, “Black in Black” and “Hells Bells”, to find a new venue for the gig.
Local authorities hope to redevelop the airstrip but their plans have been thwarted by conservationists who claim the site is the last vestige of natural grasslands which once covered the Upper Austria region.
The airstrip is also home to 200 pairs of ground-nesting meadowlarks and up to 10 breeding pairs of the Eurasian curlew, according to Bernhard Kohler from WWF Austria.
Kohler accused local politicians of “playing a dirty game” by using the concert to destroy the site and make it easier to move forward with the proposed redevelopment.
Australian Green MP Lee Rhiannon urged AC/DC to listen to conservationists’ concerns and said fans of the band would be disappointed otherwise.
“AC/DC should do the responsible thing, sit down with the organisers and arrange for the concert to be shifted,” she said. “It looks like AC/DC is being unwittingly used by the city of Wels as a tool to push its plans.”
See my blog post for more details on this issue: http://blog.robbsnet.com/2009/12/acdc-concert-threatens-rare-birds.html