Earlier this month NTU director general Zurab Alasania rejected Kyiv’s proposal to host Eurovision 2017 inside the dilapidated Palace of Sport.
“The Sports Palace is completely outdated, technically as well,” he told Espresso TV. “Kyiv has still been offering it, but this option was rejected. The Olympic stadium was also considered, as initially there were three proposals from their side. And now we’re looking at the IEC.”
That put Kyiv’s reserve venue — the International Exhibition Centre — squarely in the spotlight.
Fast-forward to Tuesday and organisers revealed the venue layout, which can hold up to 11,000 spectators and includes 5,000 seated positions. The standing-only floor concept was previously utilised inside Vienna’s Stadthalle at Eurovision 2015.
It should be noted that this is not the actual stage design.
As with every Eurovision, the particulars of the stage will come at a much later date — after the host city and venue have been decided.
Now, in an interview Hromadske, the head of Kyiv’s Department of Tourism has said that the IEC is the only venue that meets the EBU’s technical requirements to host the event.
Giving reporters a tour of the venue, Anton Taranenko added that it’s the only venue still in the running that doesn’t require the (expensive and time-consuming) construction of a roof.
Besides traditional bus and taxi routes, city officials will make water taxis available to transport passengers between the venue and central Kyiv.
Shuttle buses will transport visitors from the venue to Euroclub at the Congress Exhibition Centre Parkovy (an exhibition centre along the Dnieper). Eurovillage will be located in the picturesque Sofiyskaya Square or Mikhailivska Square.
The roof hieght of 2012 was 24m and 2009 26m. The roof of the iec is 25 meters… PLEASE GO THERE
Robyn, you’re right – it has its pros and cons. In theory, I guess it’s a good idea – but the decorum of some of the audience sometimes leaves a little to be desired, in my humble opinion. I know they’re only out for a good time, but to see them jeering and yelling with glasses of neon alcohol and holding up their cellphones to film, getting in the way of well-planned camera shots etc. etc. That’s the part I don’t like. Not to mention you see the same faces every year in the crowd, and I personally think the… Read more »
@Azaad I think either Amsterdam or London will host the competition. IMF is refusing to credit Ukraine.
weren’t we supposed to know the host city yesterday?
So the Deputy Director of NTU lied to us, they said the host city would be revealed on Independence Day, August 24th 2016, it’s now the 25th
OK !!! 10th of august, of course !!!
NTU director general Zurab Alasania announced that on 10/18/16 !!! Such a great news you’re giving to us !!! Two weeks late !!!
They haven’t revealed it yet and it kid now 0:02 on the 25th in Ukraine
@somebody
I agree 🙂
And yeah, that was funny indeed! 😀
I hate standing space. I realize it suits the the boozy party-ers in the crowd, but it looks terrible on TV. I miss the high class of the tuxedo olden days.
2 ms it’s not far from the city. actually it’s just on the other bank of the river which divides kyiv into two parts. you can easily get there by subway and klychko says there will be river trams too. 2 MrBrightside despite being a big city dnipro drastically needs good hotels and infrastructure in the whole. i can assert it as i’m often on business trips in dnipro. as well it needs refurbishment, decent concert halls and theatres and so on but that’s not related to eurovision. i hope filatov will improve the situation with years. nowadays, in my… Read more »
laughing so hard xD
https://twitter.com/that_feeling_w/status/768525709803294720
I guess scene and technic possibilities are more important for nice staging than arena or city. Well, 2015 had little scene, but it was really beatitful. I’m living in Kyiv and I hope for lovely venue <3
Choose Odessa!!!
First: thank god! The palace of sports could no longer compete with the scale of Eurovision now compared to 2005.
Secondly: this is a more practical solution, but the metal beams would probably need seeing to so that camera cranes can operate correctly
Yeah, Kyiv gets my vote. It has good transport links, both in the city and internationally, it has the tourist sights, so visitors will have places to go on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday that ESC won’t be on. The venue doesn’t need a roof and it’s a decent size to give us a contest on the same scale as Malmö or Vienna. Anyone else notice the trend of hosting? 2012 – Huge Contest 2013 – Small Contest 2014 – Huge Contest 2015 – Small Contest 2016 – Huge Contest 2017 – Small Contest, if Kyiv is chosen. I guess… Read more »
Odessa.
It looks far from the city.
It’s not beautiful around the center of exhibition.
Tusán, it’s an optical illusion. Ceiling height in the zone, where the stage will be placed is 25m (10m higher than in Wiener Stadthalle and 3m higher than in Malmo Arena) and it’s lowering to 15m in the hall (which is the same height as in Wiener Stadthalle).
Nah the ceiling is too low.
It looks like the simplest option was staring them in the face the whole time
The only obstacle for visual quality is a bit low roof but it’s solvable. Still, do Odessa! 🙂
When are they going to decide on the host city? It’s getting tiring…
Look at B&W Hallerne. Ugly af but very functional
@The ones below about the columns – Baku had them, Copenhagen had them (yes, they did – watch the show again, the giant screens on both sides, while the roller camera was shooting from the far-est place), so there’s no problem for that.
@John
One of the venues proposed in 2014 had columns and it was rejected for that reason. Baku Chrystal Hall doesn’t have columns inside it. If the columns are where the seats and/or stage are, the venue can’t host Eurovision. That’s the EBU’s rules.
Ariso Light, Baku Craystal Hall also had columns, the same about a project on roof construction over Odesas’ stadium. It has never been considered as a problem.
It has columns. Columns are not allowed.
Still hoping for Odessa!! 🙂
Small city? Dnipro has almost 1 million citizens. The only larger cities in Ukraine are Kyiv and Kharkiv. Everybody hyped about Lviv but the truth is that Lviv is even smaller than Dnipro. 😉
@Erik in Dnipro it’s a much smaller Venue in a much smaller city that probably doesn’t even have enough hotels to host such event. There’s no reason to bring the Eurovision there.
“Giving reporters a tour of the venue, Anton Taranenko added that it’s the only venue still in the running that doesn’t require the (expensive and time-consuming) construction of a roof.”
WTF???
The venue in Dnipro has already a roof, and it has seats too! Stop lying Kiev!!!
Yeah it’s ugly but it’s spacious (and the cheapest solution). Reminds me of the Copenhagen hangar. If they manage to light it properly, nobody will notice the ugliness around. I say they should go with it rather than covering stadiums/renovating old arenas.
Looks good! ????
OK, this is the fairest and cheapest option plus the venue has all the added needed places like for press and changing rooms and technical organization. Ukraine, you can go with this. Nobody will say anything (except some gay dramas around 😛 ).
So, c’mon, do it!