Stockholm 2016 by Ronny Addamo – Australia

I didn’t think anything could top my Eurovision experience of 2015 in Vienna. It was my first year as a part of the OGAE ROW family, and wow, what an experience it was. So many friendly new people to enjoy my euro passion with.
My 2016 trip didn’t have the best start. Our flight was delayed landing in Doha, Qatar. With only a tiny 40 minute window of time to run from one end of the expansive airport to the other, disorganised security area, and drowsy from the 14 hour flight, things looked grim. However we managed to just make the flight. This stroke of luck carried on with us from that moment on,
Upon reaching Stockholm we quickly dumped our bags, ran into people we knew, and started enjoying some live performances  in euro village. Then euro fan cafe. That remained pretty much what we did the entire week, when not at Eurovision itself. We organised a fan meet within the club at a lovely cafe, meeting some 23 members of our fan club. We also visited the Hard Rock Cafe for wiwijams concert, visited the abba museum with the club and had many boozy nights with our fellow members. Theres nothing I love more than meeting new people and I can’t count the number of new friends I made through that week. I can’t mention enough just how lucky I feel for being part of such a friendly and inclusive club.
Inclusive is the word I use when describing my experience at Eurovision this year. Stockholm, amalgamating the euro club and cafe was a stroke of genius. Everyone was welcome and the artists themselves wandered around the crowd with us, it was magic! I hope future years follow this lead.

Vienna was hard to beat, but Stockholm, you were a star!!