Today it is D-Day.... it is finally here, what we have all been waiting on tenterhooks for! .. Semi-Final 1 of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011! Yaaaay .....
So ... this morning, Tam and I thought we'd take a wonder up to the old town where eurovision central, aka Eurocafe/club is situated.... we wanted to soak up the atmosphere of eurocafe/club during the day and share some photos and thoughts with you on this glorious day!!
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| From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May |
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| From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May |
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| From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May |
As you can see, we arrived at the old town early in the day but eurocafe quickly began to fill with fans and delegations and artists from around Europe. Just to note for those of you who haven't been to a live eurovision, fan central is called Eurocafe during the day right up to 10pm and then it turns into Euroclub. Anyone can go to Eurocafe but usually only those with some form of accreditation, for example Press or Fan, can get into Euroclub where a number of delegations have held their parties.
As you can see, eurocafe/club is quite a large venue... the club actually is behind the eurocafe but is joined by huge partition doors which are opened at 10pm when eurocafe becomes euroclub!
It is a fantastic atmosphere at any time of the day. You can have a nice meal or snack at eurocafe with a drinky or two of your choice whilst listening to constant eurovision songs past and new! A eurovision fans dream!!
Today, as it is semi final 1.... the place was full of fans, people from OGAE Germany and assorted national network TV crews with great big mic booms and enormous tv cameras etc... At one point we noticed a queue forming and a lot of excited squeals from fans... so Drew mosied over to see the score and also squealed when discovering it was Dino Merlin from Bosnia Herzegovina signing his CD. Drew and Tam promptly joined the queue and as you can see Drew got his picture taken with the lovely Dino. Drew commented to Dino about how nice his suit was and Dino replied thank you and gave a huge smile... he said he liked the UK song and wished the UK good luck at eurovision and Drew likewise wished the lovely Dino all the best for semi-final 2 on Thursday.
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| From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May |
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| From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May |
As we were about to leave, Mika for the Ukraine arrived and was immediately surrounded by various national networks... so.... we decided to leave as we wanted to return to the hotel to lay out our outfits for tonight. Tam will need to spend a lot of time instructing Drew (he is English after all!) on how to wear a Cornish Kilt as we don't want him turning up at his first ever eurovision semi final in what looks like a mini kilt!
We hope you all enjoy semi final 1 and will get back to you with our thoughts on how it all went!