It’s time to pull out your calendar and a highlighter! That’s because earlier today Vienna’s Mayor Michael Häupl revealed important dates involving the semi-final allocation draw, song deadlines and ticket sales for Eurovision 2015.

Semi-Final Allocation Draw for ESC 2015

On January 26, the Mayor of Copenhagen, who hosted last year’s contest, will pass the Eurovision baton to the Mayor of Vienna at a special insignia ceremony. The ceremony will coincide with the semi-final allocation draw, where officials will divide competing countries into their respective semi-finals. As always, they’ll be drawing countries from various “pots” to minimize the effects of bloc voting. You can review last year’s draw to get a flavour for what goes down.

Head of Delegations Meeting in Vienna

The HoD meeting isn’t just significant because represenatives from all the participating broadcasters gather to mingle. It’s important because they have to hand over important documents, which include the final versions of their Eurovision songs. You can think of it as the song submission deadline. It will take place on March 16 and 17.

Eurovision 2015 Ticket Sales

The first tranche of tickets for Eurovision (including the first and second semi-finals, the final, and dress rehearsals for each of them) will go on sale in mid-November.

Eurovision hosts

We’ve been running a poll about who you want to host Eurovision 2015, and it’s clear that anticipation is high. Will Conchita Wurst have a role to play? We’ll find out by the end of the year when the hosts are finally and officially announced.