Newcastle has officially launched its bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 today.
Newcastle City Council has this morning launched its bid to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. The bid has been created by the NewcastleGateshead Initiative on behalf of the council Destination Director, Ian Thomas commented:
This is a once in a generation opportunity to welcome a huge number of international visitors, performers and media to the North East of England and to showcase our world- class culture, rich heritage and vibrant region to the world.
Our bid is a region-wide effort with support from our local authorities, and public and private sector partners from across the North East as we recognise the enormity of this opportunity.
Discussing the ability of Newcastle to host large events Mr Thomas added:
We’ve seen other large events such as the European Professional Rugby Club finals attract 95,000 fans to the region which contributed £24m to our visitor economy in 2019, and World Transplant Games also in 2019 brought in attendees from over 50 countries which pushed hotel occupancy rates up by 13%, supporting the hospitality supply chain and helping to sustain jobs within the industry.
Eurovision will be on an even bigger scale, and we welcome this fantastic opportunity to bring this to the region.
The bid from Newcastle centers around the Utilita Arena which has a capacity of 11,000 people. The arena opened in late 1995 and is the largest indoor arena in the region. Newcastle is home to over 300,000 people and is part of the wider Tyneside region.
How will the host city be chosen?
The selection process will consist of two rounds. After receiving all applications, bidding cities will be shortlisted “based on their ability to meet the requirements and their responses around capability and experience.”
The key requirement is described as follows:
“The final decision on selecting the Host City will be based on a city or region’s capacity and capability in meeting the BBC’s and the EBU’s requirements, as well as availability of resources and general experience in hosting a large and complex event such as the Eurovision Song Contest.”
The decision regarding where the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will be held is expected to be made this autumn, when the bidding process is completed. According to the BBC, the UK government may be consulted beforehand, but it will be the BBC and the EBU who will determine the host city.
The following cities have confirmed that work has started on their bids:
- Aberdeen
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Glasgow
- Liverpool
- Newcastle
While the following cities have already stated their intention to submit a bid or are investigating whether to bid:
The 2023 contest will be the first contest since 1979 in which the winning nation was unable to host the following contest. It is the sixth occasion overall on which the country has hosted after the original host nation was unable to, following the Netherlands in 1960, France in 1963, Monaco in 1972, Luxembourg in 1974 Israel in 1980 and Ukraine in 2023. The 2023 contest will also extend the United Kingdom’s record of hosting Eurovision to nine times.
Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song “Stefania”. It was Ukraine’s third victory in the contest’s history.
Image Source: Wikimedia / JimmyGuano | Source: Chronicle
