Hundreds of evacuees gathered for a concert at the Victoria Stadium on Evacuation Commemoration Day.

This was a bank holiday held on Monday 7^th September to celebrate and remember all those who were evacuated from their homes in Gibraltar 75 years ago.

Emotions were high on Monday evening when evacuees and their families, as well as members from the Government and from the Opposition, when those attending were given an insight into the hardships endured by those who were sent away from Gibraltar, and also celebrated through song and dance.

Speaking at the event, the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said: “Today we are not remembering the event, but today we celebrate you the people of the evacuation, the people of the Rock, who fought adversity to return to their limestone home. The people who could not be kept away.

“For it is you that we the later generations owe everything to. You would not be denied your right of return, and by fighting incessantly for your homecoming at the end of the war, you re-established not just your personal households, but you re-established that the Rock is our home.

“You established our identity as a people, and you established our nation – a small but proud Mediterranean nation created in the shape of those that we today honour, our founding fathers and mothers.”

The event was led by Peter Canessa, and the celebration included performances from the South London Military Wives Choir, Mount Opera, Jonathan Lutwyche, Gibraltar Academy of Dance, The Paul Riley Big Band featuring Chloe Martinez, Francis Chipolina, a performance from Transitions Dance Academy that depicted the evacuation, and an appearance by the Re-enactment Association. 

At the end of the event, guests were given a 38-page booklet illustrated with photographs and a timeline listing the chronology of the main events both in relation to the War and as they affected the evacuees.

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