The French nuclear testing in the South Pacific got the most attention at the ceremony.
Jon Bon Jovi during his speech for winning the award for Best Rock said: "The only enemy is ignorance. Peace, people. Let's get rid of all this nuclear testing."[2] and Bono said: "What a city, what a night, what a crowd, what a bomb, what a mistake, what a wanker you have for a President" referring to nuclear testing and then-French President Jacques Chirac. Greenpeace, the environmental group that has staged creative and controversial protests around the testing site at Mururoa Atoll, took the Free Your Mind award for its campaign against the underground nuclear blasts.[3]
"Stop abusing the earth," urged Madonna in a videotaped segment before the designer agnès b. picked up the award for Greenpeace.
The awards are also notable for the portfolio given to approximately 200 attendees, Outbreak of Violets, which is an extremely rare work by comics writer Alan Moore. Written by Moore and drawn by 24 different European artists, the work is a sequence of 24 postcards and has never been reprinted. It is believed to be Moore’s rarest work and described by collectors as his Holy Grail.
