WHAT’S IN A CONTEST?

Written by Edward Till (UK)

I’ve been lucky enough to attend 6 Eurovision Song Contests now (Athens 06, Dusseldorf 11, Baku 12, Malmö 13, Copenhagen 14 & Vienna 15) and often get asked which was my favourite Contest. I realised that it was difficult to answer as each Contest had it’s own pros and cons.

So what does it take to produce a great Contest to actually attend, as opposed to watching on television. I’m sure those of you who have attended o contest will have their own criteria, but for me, it all comes down to the following factors:

    Eurovision Fever in the host city

This can influence your enjoyment of the contest immensely. When the city is wrapped up in Eurovision logos and your favourite Eurovision songs are playing in the shops, it really can make you feel welcomed in your host city.

Here I would have to say Malmö won hands down for me. Being a small city, you really felt the presence of Eurovision everywhere you went, from the Eurovision butterflies adorning the statues, the Eurovision hits played in the train stations, and even the Eurovision canal cruise.

Who lacked in this regard? I would have to say Vienna. The venues were so spread out and this large host city is so used to many more tourists, that you just didn’t see the Eurovision spirit until you arrived at the arena.

    The venue itself

When you have thousands of excited fans in a small area, you want the venue to be able to handle the crowds easily enough, is easy to get to and has a great vibe.

I think the best venue so far was probably Vienna. There were enough food and drinks stands to handle your orders quickly, the atmosphere was fantastic, it was easy to get in, easy enough to get to, and just very well organised.

The worst for me? Probably Baku. The venue itself was amazing, but it was a long walk to get to, there wasn’t enough food and drinks available (not even water on the first night), and the security did not make you feel at all welcome.

    That special something

Each year, there is something that makes that year particularly memorable. Maybe it’s the glorious weather, or the fact that it is your first Contest, or that your favourite won.

For me, the most memorable contest has to be Baku because of all the new and lasting friendships that was made that year. The organisers insisted on only issuing tickets on that day for each show, meaning we were forced to meet up as an OGAE crowd before every show to pick up our tickets for that day, and as such ended up travelling to the venue together too, socialising along the way.

So to sum it all up? Which was my favourite year? If I had to choose, it would be Malmö in 2013. The weather was perfect, it was well organised, the city embraced all the fans and a fantastic week of Eurovision was had by all. Although Baku was definitely a close second (despite the problems with the venue).

What was your favourite, and why?

One thought on “WHAT’S IN A CONTEST?”

  1. I have been to many EUROVISIONS and almost all had something special. The worst however was BIRMINGHAM where I felt totally unwelcome. On the other hand JERUSALEM was special as In was made head of delegation for South Africa – it felt so good. But accommodation was a horror – I was booked at a bed and breakfast place an hour drive by bus from the venue. KIEV was the best when it came to closeness, within 400 meters from the venue, the hotel I stayed in was part of the venue complex and inbetween each press conference I walked to the hotel to put down my promo CD inside the hotel. Riga was special when I was allowed into the country without a visa since Austria took 6 weeks with my Schengen visa as I just flew via Vienna to Riga, so I got my passport back one day before departure so no time for a Baltic visa (they were not part of Schengen then).

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