It's official! Dusseldorf will host next year's Eurovision Song Contest following Germany's victory in Oslo this year with the godawful Satellite by Lena Meyer-Landrut.
The Contest will take place at football team Fortuna Düsseldorf's arena, which has a maximum seating capacity of 54,400 people. Due to the required space for the stage and technical facilities, the capacity for the Eurovision Song Contest will be lower - approximately 24,000 spectators can attend each of the three live shows and some of the Dress Rehearsals. The arena is located within five kilometres from both Düsseldorf's international airport as well as the city centre.
Here is a little guide to that city, courtesy of the wonderful Boom-Bang-a-Blog:
Dusseldorf is the centre of Germany's fashion and advertising industries, making it the ideal place for an entrant to pick out a new outfit if the dayglo/tinfoil number they've brought with them from home flares too much in front of the camera.The blog goes on:
The city has also been found to have the best quality of life for its inhabitants in all of Germany - and the sixth best in the whole wide world. Internationally, it only lags behind Vienna (the tops), Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland.
Eurovision fans are known to consume a fair whack of booze on their trips to the Contest of Song. If Dusseldorf does host then they might like to try the hoppy Altbier, the city's very own lager which sounds a bit more like real ale when you read the description.
If all that Altbier gives you the post-bierkeller munchies, then the two dishes you're likely to find in Dusseldorf's more traditional restaurants are Sauerbraten, a beef roast marinated in vinegar and spicy stuff for a fair while, or the far-more-interestingly titled Heaven and Hell (Himmel und Ad in German) which, while sharing the title of the 1998 Dutch entry, is in fact a mixture of black pudding, stewed apple and mashed potato. That actually sounds rather tasty and something to drown sorrows with after the inevitable crash and burn of the UK entry on the night of the Eurovision final.
This year's champ Lena is (apparently) defending her title on home turf in 2011, which means that Dusseldorf's greatest contribution to the world of pop, Kraftwerk, won't be getting a look-in as Germany's entry next year. Wouldn't have thought they'd be all that bothered at missing out, to be honest..."
Some are already decrying the choice of host city for next year as this still leaves Berlin as the only major European capital never to have hosted the Contest. There are also claims that the 'Dorf (which I probably won't be calling it as the months roll on) is a bit too creaky and antiquated to host a Eurovision party - but surely wherever you host a Song Contest, a party will naturally form around it?Whatever happens, here at Dolores Delargo Towers we certainly will be partying! Semi-finals are scheduled to take place on 10th and 12th May and the final on 14th May 2011. Mark it in your diaries, now...
Here are some of the horrors and the more palatable entries Germany has given us over the years:
Official Eurovision Song Contest site
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