Organisers said the cuts had been justified by lawmakers who argued the arts were only for the "wealthy elite". "A 13% rise in sales tax hits all of the public because tickets get more expensive," organisers said in a manifesto published online. "By cutting culture budgets and raising tax on tickets, culture will become an elitist pastime and less accessible for people with less money."
In Amsterdam, around 20,000 people gathered on Saturday afternoon on the Leidseplein to listen to music and give protest speeches against the proposed cuts. Some 2,500 professional and amateur musicians gathered at the Neude square in Utrecht to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
At The Hague, members of the public held a late-night gathering after theatres and cinemas closed to listen to a trumpeter from a local orchestra play The Last Post and hold a minute's silence. The slogan for the protests was The Netherlands screams for culture, where protesters were encouraged to scream to show their anger at the cuts.
Covent Garden News - Singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright will become the first solo artist to take up residency at the Royal Opera House when he performs a series of concerts next summer. As part of his week-long residency in Covent Garden, Wainwright will be joined by his sister Martha and his father Loudon, who will each perform with him for one show.
House of Rufus, which is to run from 18-23 July, will open with Wainwright's Judy Garland tribute concert - Rufus Does Judy!. The concert is his version of Garland's 1961 comeback show at Carnegie Hall. During the week, Wainwright will also oversee a concert version of his debut opera Prima Donna which premiered at the Manchester International Festival last year. The opera will be performed by Janis Kelly.
Wainwright said: "Although I am from the pop world, I have been an opera addict for many, many years and I remember coming to the Royal Opera House for the first time when my Dad was living here when I was a teenager."
Financial Affairs - The organisers of an Elton John concert in Italy have been told to pay back the money they used to stage the event. The 720,000 euros (£613,000) came from the European Union as part of a fund to enhance regional development in the Campania region. The European Commission only recently discovered that some of its funds had been used to stage the gig by one of the biggest names in music.
The affair was brought to light by Mario Borghezio, an Italian MEP from the Northern League party, who said using EU cash in this way was "shameful". After looking into the allegations, the commission this week sent a letter to the Italian government and the Campania regional authorities asking them to reimburse the money. Commission spokesman Ton Van Lierop said this concert fell outside the remit of the funding programme. "Cultural events, culture in general, can fall under the scope of operational programmes, but they have to be aimed at structural long-term investments," he said.
(Jim Evans)
