From a festival of pop music to a mega event
The Eurovision Song Contest has come a long way from a festival of hit tunes to its prominence as a mega-event known today. The competition, which has been taking place since 1956, is one of the most renowned music spectacles in Europe. In the past two decades, the festival has also become highly expensive, to a large extent, due to highly demanding stage settings.
In 2012, the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Azerbaijan, where the organisers spent 60 million euros. If we add the numbers from the Palace Arena, purposefully built for the event, we can add an additional 100 million euros. For their project in 2014, Denmark spent 45 million euros, while Austrians spent 30 million euros for their event in Vienna. Organising the event in Stockholm in 2016 was the least expensive, with the project costing only 14 million euros. The last edition in Rotterdam was estimated at 19 million euros. The organisers counted on the influx of income; however, the corona crisis complicated the situation.
Information from Serbia is also interesting, where they spent 21 million euros to organise the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. Serbian organisers boasted of having hosted 15.000 tourists who came to Belgrade and created significant income. According to their estimates, the visitors generated roughly ten million euros of income.
Eurovision Song Contest undoubtedly has numerous multiplicative effects. Below is an insight from colleagues from Turin on this year’s event and its long-term benefits.
Eurovision Song Contest Turin 2022: A great opportunity to communicate the tourist excellence of Piedmont
Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine with their song ‘Stefania’. Turin and Piedmont hosted the prestigious event from May 10 to 14. International artists, journalists, and tourists from all over the world attended one of the most followed and acclaimed musical events, not only in Europe.
Born 66 years ago as an international singing competition on the model of the Sanremo Festival, the 2022 edition of Eurovision was seen by thousands around the world. Presented by Laura Pausini, Alessandro Cattelan and Mika, the event offered its stage to artists from 40 different countries.
Initiatives at Eurovillage
The Eurovision Village was set up in Valentino Park, an entertainment area open from May 7 to 14 with a full program that included more than 40 hours of concerts with international, national and Piedmontese artists ranging from rock to hip-hop, from world music to electronic music. Eurovision Village also became the space to talk about music, technology and business, thanks to the Music Talk meetings organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Turin in collaboration with the City of Turin.
Turin and Piedmont, destinations to be discovered
Piedmont accepted the important challenge: the Eurovision Song Contest, with its almost 200 million viewers and 60 thousand in attendance, was the showcase to highlight all the beauty and good that the region has to offer.
To learn more about the mega-event, click here. Further information regarding Turin and Piedmont is available here.
