Turin 2022🇮🇹 Italy

🇮🇹 Turin and Milan among cities expressing interest in hosting Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Reggio Emilia proposing a field for 100,000 people

Måneskin probably haven’t even landed back in Italy after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, but cities in Italy are already vying for the hosting rights. Milan and Turin are among the cities to express their interest straight away. Other cities include Pesaro, Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Naples. In this article, we’ll take you through the first information we have.

Turin: The early favourite

The early favourite of the bidding process is Turin. Their mayor, Chiara Appendino, confirmed her city’s interest in hosting the contest next year. Torino, the Italian name of the city, was reportedly the #1 choice for 2018 if Francesco Gabbani had won the contest with Occidentali’s Karma.

Appendino mentioned that several larger events have taken place in Turin. For the contest, they do have a suitable venue in the city. The Pala Alpitour, or Palalsozaki, can host up to 18,500 people, although this goes down to about 13,000 for concerts. The city built the venue for the 2006 Winter Olympics, as the ice hockey then took place at the Pala Alpitour.

Milan: Fashion and class for Eurovision

The second city on the list is Milan. Councilor Pierfrancesco Maran and Mayor Beppe Sala confirmed their interest as soon as they could. Maran posted on Facebook to congratulate Måneskin and immediately add his hopes of hosting the next edition in his city.

The venue for Milan’s bid would be the Mediolanum Forum, located in the suburb of Assago. Mediolanum Forum is mostly in use as a sports venue, having hosted Ice Hockey World Championships in the past. For the Winter Olympics of 2026, Milan will use the Forum as their Figure Skating venue. It can host up to 12,700 people. A bonus for RAI is that one of their main broadcasting hubs is located in Milan.

Bologna: The outside bet?

The capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, Bologna, is also very interested in hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Councillor Matteo Lepore hyped up his city, which has the label of City of Music from UNESCO. Lepore mentioned that he would personally approach RAI and President Mattarella to announce Bologna’s candidacy.

For concerts, their venue would be the Unipol Arena. It is the largest venue with a roof currently on offer for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Almost 20,000 people can attend a concert at the venue, which is located in Casalecchio di Reno, a suburb slightly outside the city centre of Bologna. The city also has an airport nearby, so on a first glance, Bologna can’t be underestimated.

Pesaro: Coastal city with connections

Perhaps a more surprising and unknown city in the list of bids is Pesaro. The city is an important port and beach location for Italians right at the Adriatic Sea. The Marche region has been gaining a good reputation in the past years and a Pesaro bid for Eurovision would add to that. Mayor Matteo Ricci posted his wish to bring the contest to his city on Twitter.

Pesaro would offer us the Vitrifrigo Arena, which can host up to 13,000 people. Ricci describes it as one of the most beautiful and biggest venues in the country. The city is one of the smaller ones to express their interest, with just shy of 95,000 inhabitants, but the facilities are there, with Rimini Airport being located just 40 kilometres away.

Naples: A smaller venue – Tel Aviv style

Mayoral candidate Alessandra Clemente has promised that she will do everything she can to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to Naples. Of the cities on offer, Naples is the only one to have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest before. Back in 1965, after their first win, Naples hosted the show.

This time around, the venue for Naples would also be relatively small. They’re seemingly proposing an idea similar to Tel Aviv in 2019, where a fairground complex hosted the event. The centre in question this time is the Mostra d’Oltremare. The arena located there is the PalaArgento, which could host up to 8,000 people. Not much more than in Tel Aviv, so even though the venue is smaller than the others on offer – it is definitely big enough to host the show.

Reggio Emilia: Time to discuss… the roof

It wouldn’t be a Eurovision bidding season with a wacky bid to host the contest. For the Netherlands, we had Utrecht who wanted to build a tent next to the actual venue and we usually see a few roofless efforts as well. 2022 will be no exception. Reggio Emilia has decided to put the RCF Arena forward. Except… there is no arena.

The RCF Arena is an open air theatre near Reggio Emilia. If bigger is better, this is the frontrunner. The space can host up 100,000 people. Yes, that is correct: a hundred thousand people. There’s just no building and therefore no roof. It is questionable whether the EBU would be willing to go for an open air Eurovision.

Reggio Emilia as a city is the home of approximately 170,000 people. It is located in the Emilia Romagna region and both Parma Airport and Bologna Airport are in close proximity to the city. It is early days, but this may be the most unrealistic bid out there.

Last night, Måneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with Zitti E Buoni, taking us to Italy for the first time since 1991. We will report as more bids to host come in!

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