The event is set to take place in ACC Liverpool, with a 950 square metre main stage and a 500 square metre green room along with more than 2,000 specialist lighting fixtures. Over the five-stage building weeks, the production team is installing 140 tonnes of a steel ground support structure and eight miles of cabling for lighting, sound, video, and special effects.
James O’Brien, the executive in charge of Eurovision production, who previously worked on the MTV Europe Music Awards for 13 years before joining BBC Studios, talked about the scale of the show. According to him, “You’ll see when you see the show that the set is absolutely enormous and covers almost the entire floor, because there’s a green room that goes in where the talent sit to watch the show.” He also mentioned the decision to incorporate a thrust stage into the performances, which is a unique feature to the Eurovision. The stage will jut out into the audience, with the audience sitting around the sides.
The UK is hosting Eurovision, with Wild Youth representing Ireland in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool on May 9 with their song We Are One. Faye Dyer, managing director of the ACC Group, said that for Eurovision, they are using the ACC Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre in Liverpool along with the 11,000-capacity arena. She added, “Our facilities actually lend themselves really well to these global events.”
This year, there is a lot of work going on to ensure sustainability and recycling of props and costumes, with the aim of reusing them in some way by auctioning them for charity, giving them to museums, or recycling the materials. The BBC is also working with Ukrainian lighting and film specialists on the production and will use special Ukrainian camera equipment.
In terms of spectacle, the Eurovision Song Contest has always been a show-stopper, and this year will be no different.
