A lot is still up in the air over Eurovision 2020, but one thing is now certain: the Eurovision Song Contest will not take place in the city of Breda.
That’s after the city announced on Monday that it was withdrawing from host city contention because of the major financial risks associated with securing the event.
Previously Breda wanted to organize the contest in the Breepark event hall. Although this location would meet the requirements — it has adequate seating and a roof, for starters — the city has decided to pull out.
Alderman Daan Quaars from the city of Breda explained that while the will was there from the moment Duncan Laurence won Eurovision, further questioning and new information made them back away. You’ll remember that in order to see the official selection criteria, cities first had to sign up for the bidding process. In some ways they were bidding blindly.
“After some additional questions to [broadcaster] NPO, we finally had to conclude that, partly in view of the current financial situation of the municipality, it is not justified to do it. Also because everything is under great time pressure, the candidate cities must have submitted their bid books no later than 10 July. ”
Another complication was having to foot the financial guarantee for the event. It seemed strange to city officials that the city would have to shoulder the guarantee alone, given that the entire country will benefit from the contest.
“From a further explanation of the rules of this special event, it seems that [a considerable financial guarantee] must be provided unilaterally by the municipality. This is not realistic, because the event not only promotes Breda, but the whole of the Netherlands.”
There are now six cities and regions that are still in the race to become Eurovision’s next host city: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht / Limburg, Arnhem and Den Bosch. Leeuwarden and The Hague withdrew earlier.
My hometown. Sad life this amazing event will not take place just around the corner. But is was to be expected. ?
Breda is a lovely town tho so make sure that you will visit it sometime.
The Breda Jazz Festival may be an excellent opportunity…. 🙂
wow i thought they had this one in the bag
Not unless Tiësto ponied up a nice chunk of the budget to have this show in his city.
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Arnhem are the only cities left that have a venue that is big and high enough.
Maastricht, Utrecht and Den Bosch are just wasting the time of the people who have to go through the bid books.
Can we just narrow it down to the final two already? We know it’s going to be between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. As I said before though, hopefully the other cities are used in some way too throughout the two weeks. Make hosting ESC a national thing instead of just confining it to one city. Get the nation behind it! Red carpet event at The Hague Pre-contest concerts in Breda, Maastricht etc Semi final and final either Amsterdam or Rotterdam Eurovision: The Party- concept used in 2016 in either Amsterdam or Rotterdam- whoever doesn’t end up hosting the actual contest Postcards… Read more »
They should take the opportunity in a country with a great transport system and everything close together to make it national. Wouldn’t have this opportunity in Russia, Spain, Italy, Sweden etc.
That’s exactly what I mean (Dunno why I got downvoted for it though).
Rotterdam/Amsterdam/Den Haag etc are all very close together. So my idea of spreading the contest out like this could work in The Netherlands.
Why should we spread the contest like that? So now youre telling me a whole country should be involved just because its main cities are close to each other? So what? Spreading out Eurovision events like Darren suggested would mean they would still be several kms away from each other and no one (not the fans nor the national broadcaster) wants to waste their money on commute and logistics like that when you can hold every event in one city. So the idea of holding these events in different cities just sounds illogical to me. Just because we can do… Read more »
Moreover, that would set an unworkable precedent for larger countries like Russia or Ukraine. You couldn’t do the multiple cities approach as a one-off
I really hope for Rotterdam and I know that it’s probably going to be either Amsterdam or Rotterdam, but considering the fact that Arnhem is very closely located to Germany, I wouldn’t mind Arnhem hosting either. I mean it only takes 1 hour for us to arrive there 😀
Even if the contest does take place in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, I will be still hoping to attend the Eurovision for the first time ever.
If everything goes right, the Netherlands I’m coming.. 😀
We all know this thing will be between Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
The surrender of Breda 2019.
People who know about Art will know ?
why dont they just host it in russia in stead of all this unnecessary drama
There is no logical reason to host next year in russia
There is no drama! Cities are Just now looking at all the posibilities and concluding it is possible or not.. very normal.. gonna be Rotterdam/Amsterdam and maybe Maastricht anyway..
By and large, compared to last year, this is one of the least dramatic host city bids I’ve ever seen.
Small cities entering the bidding process and withdrawing due to a lack of funds is normal for Eurovision- Eilat wanting to host was not what made the 2019 season controversial. Besides, even if Breda didn’t win, they were never going to be chosen over cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht or Maastricht.
What drama, lol? A city withdrawing itself because it doesn’t think it has the capacity to host is not “drama”.
I want Everyone but Amsterdam or Rotterdam to withdraw!
Small cities deserve the chance to bid too, not only Amsterdam and Rotterdam.