The President of Kraków has explained that he pulled the city out of hosting Junior Eurovision 2020 as a result Warsaw will be hosting the event.
Kraków had been widely expected to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020 up until the announcement on Saturday evening during Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light, that the contest would instead be hosted in Warsaw.
According to reports in the Polish press, the President of Kraków decided not to transfer 1.5 million PLN to TVP due to a spat regarding the broadcasters coverage of the cities expenditure. TVP reported on the cities spending on April 29, being critical of the current President’s tenure.
The President responded to the report stating in an interview with the portal LoveKraków.pl:
If someone accuses me of spending money senselessly, for completely unnecessary things, and then tells me to give PLN 1.5 million for the organization of Eurovision Junior, then I see a certain contradiction. I wrote that I can’t “throw money”. Now Eurovision will be in Warsaw.
Eurowizja.org reports that had Kraków hosted the contest in November it was unlikely that the city would have made any money from the event. COVID-19 would likely have either removed the audience for the event, or increased costs through the need for screening of audience attendees.
Junior Eurovision 2020 is to be held on November 29 in the Polish capital, Warsaw. The competition is being hosted by the Polish public broadcaster TVP, after Viki Gabor took victory with the song “Superhero”. The show will be staged in a TV studio facility in Warsaw, not a large arena as has been seen in previous years.
Image Source: Ingle International blog / Source: Eurowizja.org
