The balloons came out. The colourful streamers came out. And about 2.000 children came out dressed in festive clothes and with self-produced colourful paper hats. The reason was the 875 year jubilee on Tuesday for the local Zealand town of Næstved. They all cheered, singing song for their local mascot, the dragon of Næssie (perhaps a relation to the Scottish fable monster of Nessie?) - so called because the town is shaped in the form of a dragon, seen from the sky.
They all marched through town to the main square, where several thousand citizens had come to see the internationally acclaimed Danish artist Bjørn Nørgaard join the Minister of the Interior and the mayor of Næstved, Henning Jensen, at the revelation of a new sculpture and fountain portraying a local mythical figure who keeps away evil spirits and evil people - with life giving water flowing from her chest. The local citizens debated the sculpture, some had to get used to it - but most liked it after a walkabout around it. The paradox of most art.