Tickets for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest go on sale tomorrow. Sadly, the news was soured by announcements that suggest Ukraine may not wish to welcome the regular fan community. This in a year when the contest slogan urges the celebration of diversity.
Unlike in recent years, there will be no ticket allocation held back for members of the official Eurovision fan club – the OGAE. At the end of January, Simon Bennett, head of the international fan club visited Kiev to meet with organisers. He indicated that around 2,500 fan tickets had been requested.
The 2017 contest organisers have also announced changes to regular pop-up social venue – Euroclub. This year the venue will be smaller and ‘not necessarily Eurovision-themed’. NTU won’t offer ‘fan accreditation’. This means that only artists, delegation members and accredited press pass holders will get in.
OGAE reaction
In a Facebook Post, OGAE UK described the news as ‘hugely disappointing’.
“The international OGAE network has had regular discussions with the EBU (who have been very supportive) and the host broadcaster, and we were seemingly on track for an OGAE pre-sale. In fact, data about ticket requests from each club was formally submitted today at the request of the agent and host broadcaster, so to have this news come just a few hours later is a huge shock and disappointment.”
Up to 70,000 tickets will go on sale for this year’s event in May. The tickets are spread across nine shows: six dress rehearsals, two semi-finals and the grand final.
Prices range between 8 and 500 Euros. Although each transaction is limited to four tickets, there is no limit to the number of transactions any one person can make.
All change
In other ‘piss up in a brewery’ news, today saw the resignation of both of this year’s Executive Producers. Victoria Romanova and Oleksandr Kharebin quit, blaming a loss of faith in NTU and objecting to the lack of transparency. They add their names to a growing list of experienced production staff who have jumped ship in recent months.
Update: Umbrella organisation, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) issued a statement regretting the resignations, but noting it was otherwise unable to “fully comment”. They went on to add that they “have reiterated … the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes, and that (they) stick to the timeline and milestones that have been established and approved by the Reference Group to ensure a successful Contest in May.”
