A security plan for the
Sanremo music festival came into force on Tuesday involving 300
police and soldiers who will perform random ID and metal
detector checks on people in a "red zone" around the Ariston
Theatre where the event will take place.
Checks are set to be stepped up towards the evenings during
the 66th edition of the week-long televised festival, which
opens in the Ligurian coastal town on Tuesday.
The 300 officers will also include special anti-terrorism
squads. The coastguard will help monitor the seas and a no-fly
zone has been introduced over the city.
British singer-songwriter Elton John will perform on
Tuesday evening, along with Italian singer Laura Pausini, and
acts including Lorenzo Fragola, Noemi and Dear Jack.
When asked about the decision to invite John, a married gay
father of two, during a time that Italy is debating a
controversial change to the law to allow gay civil unions,
Sanremo presenter and artistic director Carlo Conti said he was
free "to invite who he wants" to the show.
The civil unions bill, which is currently before the
Senate, includes provisions for stepchild adoption, or the
adoption by one partner in a civil union of the other partner's
biological child.
Italy, with its deeply Catholic roots, is the only West
European country without gay marriage or civil unions.
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