Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has traveled to Belarus to track progress on contests preparations.
The Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has travelled to the Belarusian capital of Minsk to hold a series of meetings about this years contest. Mr Ola Sand’s meetings started off yesterday morning by meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Vasily Zharko.
Following the meeting with Vasily Zharko, Jon Ola Sand traveled to the Minsk Arena, one of the possible venues for this years contest. During his visit to the arena the Executive Supervisor spoke very favourably about the Minsk Arena as its capability to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Ivan Eismont, the Deputy Chairman of Belteleradiocompany stated;
We looked at the auxiliary rooms and rooms for the press. Our European guests were favorably impressed. Minsk Arena is a perfect place for such an event. In Georgia, if I’m not mistaken, just over 2,000 spectators attended the Junior Eurovision Grand Final. Minsk Arena definitely has a much bigger capacity.
Discussions will continue regarding the financing of the competition, as well as the venue. Furthermore, BTRC and the EBU will be considering the date of the final of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
The 2018 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Minsk, Belarus after the country won the bidding process before the 2017 contest even began. Olga Salamankha explained that Belarus was selected as the host for next years contest over other bids due to their long-term commitment to the competition. Belarus is one of a handful of countries to consistently hold a televised selection process to select their participants. Furthermore, the stability of Belarus as a nation was cited as a factor.
The first time Belarus held a Eurovision event was at the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, where it was held in Minsk Arena.
To date the following countries have confirmed their participation in the contest:
- Belarus – Host nation
- Georgia
- The Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
Source: BTRC
I heard that the EBU is gonna talk about the issues with the time slot and voting system. First, I’ll predict that they find a new executive supervisor, and the 2003-07 voting system will be used, and that the time slot will be changed back to Saturday, and most importantly for Armenia and Malta to compete.