As we wait for the bidding process for Eurovision 2022 to get fully underway, many Italian outlets are already speculating about what the top contenders are. Eurofestival News has kindly put together a summary of the top four contenders…and what their availability looks like for 2022. Although events can always be moved or cancelled, Turin’s Pala Alpitour has a rather large gap in their calendar between April and September…
While we still will not know the host city for Eurovision 2022 for a few more months, there is no harm in some gentle speculation. Although a whopping eleven cities have shown interest, the field will be whittled down once unfeasible proposals are weeded out. Yes, we’re looking at you, Reggio Emilia…
For comparison, Rotterdam was confirmed as the host venue for 2020 in late August 2019, while the five actual bidding cities were known by early July. Thanks to Eurofestival News’ research, it can be seen that Turin’s venue is the only one to have a sufficient gap in its schedule for the required days.
Turin’s Pala Alpitour – Big gap between April and September 2022
As Nick pointed out last month, Turin is the early favourite of the bidding process. Their mayor, Chiara Appendino, confirmed her city’s interest in hosting the contest almost immediately after Måneskin’s win. 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.
Conveniently, as pointed out by Eurofestival News, it is also currently the free-est venue of the main contenders. It’s calendar is currently empty between April 10th 2022 and September 17th 2022. Interestingly, Måneskin are due to perform at the venue on April 3rd.
This hypothetically means that Turin would already be ready to host Eurovision without having to resort to rescheduling or cancelling existing bookings in Pala Alpitour.
Scheduling conflicts elsewhere
Of course, it needs to be noted that events are prone to being rescheduled or cancelled, especially in the Covid era. We, as Eurovision fans, are painfully aware of this. However, with up to six weeks being required to fully construct and prepare a venue, rescheduling several events to make room for the contest could be costly and logistically difficult.
Milan’s Mediolanum Forum currently has three concerts scheduled for the period which would roughly need to be booked out for Eurovision. The events page of its website currently has Tommaso Paradiso on 22 April, Eric Clapton on 18 May and Liberato on 25 May. Some of these were already rescheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic, so to reschedule them once again would be highly disruptive.
Meanwhile, Rome’s PalaLottomatica has a number of restrictions. Inconvenient location and awkward structure aside, it is currently booked for four consecutive nights between 12th and 15th May for Notre Dame de Paris.
And while Bologna’s Unipol Arena has the perks of an airport nearby and a capacity of 20,000 people, it also has some awkward bookings in the calendar. Notably, Bologna on Ice is due to be hosted on April 25th and Eric Clapton is due to grace the stage on May 20th.
Twelve cities showing interest
Italian broadcaster Rai will be holding a bidding process to determine which city will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The official bids have yet to be put forward but so far we’ve heard from the following cities.
- Bari
- Bologna
- Florence
- Milan
- Naples
- Pesaro
- San Remo
- Reggio Emilia
- Rimini
- Rome
- Turin
- Verona
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 the bidding process continues!
Which host city are you rooting for? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify and YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 national final season!
