In a press conference earlier today, host broadcaster ORF from Austria has revealed the concept for the stage design of Eurovision 2026, as well as some more information on the production, and the visual and musical identity of the coming edition.
A stage of three motives
The stage, the ninth Eurovision stage designed by Florian Weider since 2011, will consist of a large, “folded” screen coming down from the ceiling and turning into the floor at a 90 degrees angle, before turning into a catwalk that will lead to the “B-stage” and further ahead into the Green Room. The B-stage itself will be a semi-circular, rather thin, band, which then rises in a spiral around the main stage, joining a set of concentric circles of lightning right on the ceiling.
Behind the main stage, a sort of golden structure of parallel and perpendicular lines would help support the curved spiral.
With this design, ORF “wants to deliberately break conventions and allow new forms“:
It’s about courage for renewal, openness to radical creativity and a new freedom of design.
EBU’s press release on the Eurovision 2026 stage
Three design leitmotifs will convey this idea to viewers of Vienna 2026 in May:
The Leaf
A symbol of origin and potential, it stands for new beginnings and shared design. Diverse music from all over Europe is written on it.
The Curved Line
An expression of resonance, development and musical movement, it embodies connection, emotion and Viennese charm.
The Construct
A golden structure that connects art with functionality, it creates order, supports artistic vision and forms a deliberate contrast to the organic curved line.
These different visuals also confirm the situation of the “Golden circle” standing area, between the main stage (the “leaf”) and the satellite stage (the “curved line”). This area is priced higher than the regular standing area, and will likely be comparable to similar areas used in previous editions that had this sort of configuration between two stages, like Lisbon 2018 or Tel-Aviv 2019.
Updates about the music and visual identity
A tribute to Mozart
The theme music of this specific edition will be reinterpretations of themes from The Magic Flute, the celebrated opera from Mozart. Dorothee Freiberger and Martin Gellner will work on these reinterpretations, which will be played and recorded by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna.
Fans of the previous Viennese edition of the Contest, back in 2015, will remember Freiberger’s “Building Bridges”, used as the theme and leitmotif of Eurovision 2015, and as the opening act of the Grand Final.
A gold and cream heart for Vienna
The reveal videos also shows variations of the new, 3D Eurovision Heart, as it was teased during the reveal of the new logo back in August. These variations all show a pattern of shining, metallic gold and cream.like, liquid white. This “white and gold” colouring can also be found on the wavy motives under the heart, and on the main LED screen during the presentation.
All these visual cues combined with the stage design and the descriptions given by ORF tease a very “Art Nouveau” (the “Secession Style” or Sezessionstil in Austria) type of identity, with the gold and dark contrasts giving hints of Art Déco (think of the cover poster of Leonardo di Caprio’s “The Great Gatsby”).
A cinema-worthy direction
In line with a visual identity that wants to reproduce the elegance associated with Vienna, the production team will aim at a “Hollywood-style” direction, led by Michael Kögler and Robin Hofwander. One of the main element to push this vision will be the use, for the first time in the history of the Contest, of Arri cameras.
These cameras are used in professional cinema productions, with movies like Dune, 1917, Parasite or Everything Everywhere All at Once. They have also been used in live concerts recently, by artists like Coldplay or Taylor Swift.
As for the lightning, the ORF team will work with Tim Routlege, who was in charge of the lightning for Eurovision in 2023 and 2025.
How do you feel about these reveals? Do you like this stage? This golden motives? Tell us more in the comments below!
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