The construction of the Eurovision Song Contest’s stage is well underway at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool as construction workers and technicians have around 4 weeks to get the stage and green room ready for rehearsals to officially begin.
The construction of the stage is a huge task, with the first live Semi Final being broadcast on the 9th May, there is absolutely no time to be wasted as the arena is filled with high-vis workers. Months of preparation have led up to Eurovision’s official take-over of the venue, with team members being taken from Strictly Come Dancing, the MTV awards, The Brits, and The Baftas.
James O’Brien, BBC executive in charge of production at the site, has been enthusiastic about the construction despite a tight deadline:
We are building something that is for a contest so it has to work practically as we have to get 37 delegations on and off the set…progress has been absolutely amazing so far
You can view backstage access of the construction here:
The stage design
The much-anticipated stage design was revealed in early February, with its inspiration being drawn from ‘a wide hug to Ukraine’ and is based on set designer Julio Himede’s principles of ‘togetherness, celebration and community’.
The set is made up of the main stage, a small stage in the middle of the auditorium and a green room where acts will prepare for their performance, relax and view the voting live with the rest of the world. The stage is over 450 square metres large, along with another 220 square metres of independently moving and turning video screens, over 700 video tiles are being integrated into the floor plus more than 1500 metres of LED lights. The staging is being created by New York-based design firm Yellow Studio, which has a huge reputation of being the design team behind last year’s Grammy Awards ceremony and the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.
Faye Dyer, managing director of the arena and conference centre, says:
We have been open 15 years so we have a lot of experience of hosting complex large scale global events but this is the largest we have done to date.
You can view video renderings of the stage here:
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