Eurovision 2021: Stage and Green Room to be tweaked and revamped

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 4,312 views

NOS, the Dutch national broadacaster, has revealed that the 2021 Eurovision stage and Green Room will be tweaked and adjusted to the new normality and corona times.

The 2021 Eurovision Organizing Body has decided to replace the standing area in front of the stage with the Green Room. The Green Room will be extended in order to comply with social distancing and COVID-19 measures and restrictions. Initially the Green Room was set to be located at the back of the standing area in the venue.

The organization has decided to fill the entire floor of Ahoy with the Green Room which houses all the participating artists. Hence even the stage design will be tweaked and adjusted in accordance to the new format.

Thus will not see thousands of Eurovision fans waving their fans in the standing area. The 2021 Host Broadcasters (NOS, NPO, AVROTROS) and the EBU have refunded all the 2020 Eurovision ticket-holders for their purchsed tickets.

Sietse Bakker (Eurovision 2021 Executive Producer) has told NOS:

We live in a new reality, so certain plans can no longer work. And if you have more time – as is the case now – you will still be questioning some of the ideas that we initially liked a lot. Almost everything is key until the last moment.

Sietse goes on to comment about the Eurovision Stage and Green Room:

Normally there would be 2000 fans on the floor around the podium, waving all kinds of flags. Of course that is not possible in corona time. So the stage  designer had to go back to the drawing board.

Bakker is positive about artists and delegations travelling to Rotterdam:

As it looks now, all artists can come to Rotterdam. However, we  will create bubbles around the participants and we will test a lot.

Will there be an audience at the Rotterdam Ahoy?

According to Siete Bakker the issue regarding an audience at the Rotterdam Ahoy remains uncertain:

In the government’s roadmap, you can see that exceptions can be made for locations larger than 2,000 square meters in terms of the amount of public. But first the infections must first go down.

The Eurovision 2021 Organzing Body is set to make a decision regarding an audience in the arena by mid- April, it will all depend on the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and measures in force at that time.

A Eurovision without an audience?

A Eurovision Song Contest without an audience is also an option on the table eventhough the organization does not want to elaborate further on this issue yet.

Bakker adds:

We do have ideas about it, which we are now working on. We want it to feel authentic. Luckily, if we are good, we will still  have the artists in the Green Room. They have to imitate the feeling of the audience a little bit.

The 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 18, 20, 22 May at the Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Source: NOS