In little under two months, Liverpool will be welcoming the Eurovision Song Contest to its city, and with it, hundreds of thousands of visitors. The city is hosting the annual contest on behalf of Ukraine, last year’s winners, after a successful bid saw off contention from other cities all over the United Kingdom.
From Monday, 1 May, to Sunday, 14 May, there will be events taking place throughout Liverpool to mark the occasion, with a number of licensing applications having been submitted to Liverpool Council.
Among such plans will see Liverpool ONE temporary amend existing permits which would allow for businesses to trade across the whole site once the first of the shows gets underway from Tuesday, 10 May. This will open up Lord Street, Strand, Hanover Street, and School Lane, allowing them to sell alcohol from 6:01am until 2am. However, this will only be permitted until Sunday, 14 May, the day after the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
St. George’s Quarter has planned for live music, plays, and films. Their license would see an extension from St. John’s Gardens, St. George’s Plateau, St. George’s Place, Lime Street, the steps to Lime Street Station, Lime Street at the junction of the bottom end of London Road, St. John’s Lane, William Brown Street, Lord Nelson Street, Commutation Row up to the junction of Islington. Running from Friday, 5 May until Sunday, 14 May, trading between 10am and 11:30pm, with alcohol possibly served from 11am until 11pm.
A decision is to be made this week on plans for a 25,000-capacity fan park at Pier Head which will function alongside the live broadcasts of the Eurovision Song Contest.
The National Lottery is organising a free concert outside St. George’s Hall for 30,000 people to celebrate the music and humour of Liverpool, as well as the coming together of Liverpool, Ukraine, and Eurovision, United by Music.
Eurovision 2023
Liverpool will host the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest at the M&S Bank Arena. The decision comes after multiple rounds of shortlisting various UK cities, as the winners of the 2022 contest Ukraine were not able to host. Eurovision 2023 will be held on May 9, 11 and 13.
Liverpool is known globally as the birthplace of the Beatles, as well as music events such as Africa Oyé, Liverpool International Music Festival and Sound City. The city is home to just under 500,000 people and is known for its iconic music venues and cultural events. The city is connected to the world via Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
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 a different 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.
Image Source: Wikimedia / Rept0n1x | Source: Liverpool Echo
