PARIS, France (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Some 700,000 fans turned out in Paris for a free Bastille Day concert at Champ de Mars park featuring French rock icon Johnny Halliday, the AFP reported.
The concert and accompanying fireworks display marked the 120th anniversary of the opening of the tower, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
Halliday, regarded by many as the French Elvis Presley, is huge in the Gallic nation and has done 400 tours with total ticket sales upwards of 25 million and sold more than 100 million records, including 18 albums that went platinum in his 48-year career. Halliday's current tour will be his farewell swansong and wind down in 2010.
The July 14th celebration is similar in spirit to the July 4th holiday in the US and marked the 220th anniversary of the storming of the Parisian prison-fortress, the Bastille by revolutionaries at the start of the political and social movement that led to the overthrow of the monarchy. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
