Tomorrow, Friday 14th September, will see the start of a brand new Eurovision Song Contest tradition, the Host City Exchange. The idea, similar to the passing of the Olympic torch from one host city to the next, will see the Mayor of Helsinki travel to Belgrade, where he will present a golden ring of keys to the Mayor of Belgrade at a special event at the City Hall.
The ring will collect a key from the host city every year and will already have a key from all previous host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest including one from the last host, Helsinki. The golden ring also reflects one of the key tenets of the EBU logo and is to become one of the symbols of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, informed esctoday.com that The keys will be kept in Belgrade and the city will have it's own key placed on the ring after the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. It will then be presented to the Mayor of the next host city for the 2009 competition. The first ever hand over of the Eurovision Song Contest key will take place in the City Hall in Belgrade.
