The first delegation of esctoday.com arrived in Kyiv today. Together with the Estonian delegation we landed at Kyiv Airport. While the preparations of the venue and the press centre are still going on, everything is still looking rather messy. We explored the area.

A first look at the Palats Sportu shows that the facade of the building has not been finished yet. The organisation of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest promised to give the building a green colour and a Eurovision touch by using tarpaulin and light effects. However, this effect still has to be created.

The press centre in the shadow of the Palats Sportu is almost finished. The press centre is scheduled to open on Thursday 12th May. The computers at the press center however work on Linux instead of Windows.

Inside the Palats Sportu the first rehearsals with stand ins took place today. The reactions are positive and people are mainly enthusiastic about the scenery and the stage design that have been created for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

The upcoming days esctoday.com will extensively be reporting live from Kyiv, so stay tuned for more Eurovision Song Contest coverage!