It’s less than three months until the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 explodes onto our screens and in our hearts in Rotterdam. And while the competition is all about the music, the artists and the fans, the Eurovision stage has the power to make things even more magical.
Florian Wieder, the well-known stage designer who has worked wonders inside the Eurovision bubble and outside of it too, has the responsibility for this year’s centrepiece once more. And now producers have revealed more details about the design — and it’s got a lot of you very excited.
The stage in the Ahoy Arena will contain a semi-transparent LED screen between the main stage and the island-stage in the middle of the arena surrounded by fans. The LED screen will be 22 meters wide and 5 meters high.
“This makes the main stage even more connected to the B stage and it can be used even more creatively by the artists,” they write. “Because the screen is semi-transparent, the audience in the room can still see what happens on stage when the screen is used. If it is not used, the screen is hung high and disappears completely out of sight.”
Executive Producer Sietse Bakker elaborated on the design on Twitter.
Why have one giant LED wall? Let’s add a second, semi-transparant, diagonally positioned screen to create intimate settings at the B-stage! And who knows, what else… ?? #OpenUp #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/5wJTgYz4wL
— Sietse Bakker (@SietseBakker) February 20, 2020
General stage design
Wieder has described the stage design this way:
“The design shows the connection between the sky, the sea and the land. The horizon links these elements and that horizon will work as a window to open up the world of Eurovision 2020. The floor plan of the stage is inspired by the canals and bridges that connect land and water in the Netherlands. With this design, we want to bring the artists as close as possible to the audience.”
Bakker has said the design works with the broader goals of the show.
“The design is innovative, modest and functionally smart. This way we can create a completely different look for each of the 41 participating acts, opening and interval acts and during the voting results. We’ll present an innovative stage design, grand in its simplicity and yet full of surprises.”
The green room – the place where artists wait for the results to be announced – will be back in the main performance venue in Rotterdam. This will definitely help the audience feel even more connected to the competing artists.
Wieder is designing the Eurovision stage for the sixth time now. He started in 2011 in Düsseldorf and has designed the last three stages. Florian competed against Dutch and international teams to secure the bid.
What do you think about the stage design? Are you excited about the staging concepts?
Let us know in the comment section below!
I managed to get a ticket for one of the semi-finals in category 1 section Cj, and now I’ve just been told that I’ll see a cage in front of me. But that’s overkill. They should have put that section in limited view then, not Category 1 ??
I couldn’t agree more. I find this unacceptable. These people paid a lot of money to see all the artists and not a so-called “semi-transparent” screen.
It would be cool if it could turn 90° and become the ceiling, but I doubt it would. And as transparent as it is, the metal structure that is holding the sections will be very much visible. The audience on that side will see those acts through a ”cage”.
I think it can be raised during the performances that’s not using it.
Yeah, it is raised, but when it’s used the viewers are sort of f^cked. I would expect those tribunes to have a reduced price on the ticket. Which is interesting if they did that because that little detail was unknown when they started selling the tickets. So viewers coouldn’t know that they are picking tickets for the ”wrong” side
But the performer will be on the catwalk.. So.. How does that help that it can work on both sides?
Sitse Bakker executive producer of Eurovision?!? Eurovision was out of my favourite shows. West really go in the wrong direction. Soon only hard gays will left fans of ESC.
If it ain’t Dutch it ain’t much, OK the designer isn’t. ? Who cares, we are one big family. This years edition will rock!
Looks so good.
The stage looks beautiful and I hope the participants will use what they want wisely
I’m so excited xD
Based on the pictures my top 5 stages are:
1. 2014
2. 2020
3. 2016
4. 2009
5. 2011
ok, stop, we get it, The Netherlands is rich, now let’t see if it has Israel’s showmanship.
Why compare
They have.
But that’s not a thing I’m worried about though, I mean it’s not a microstate, it’s the Netherlands; the country where big tv formats like the Voice, Big Brother originate from, and they also sold tv formats like Weekend Millionaires and The Passion to many countries. Plus a lot of big events have been held in the Netherlands like the MTV Awards, Junior Eurovision, ADE (Amsterdam). Some of those producers are luckily involved this year. Production wise I’m sure it will be fine
Uhm, when talking money, don’t forget that Madonna was paid $1.5 million for her gig. If that the showmanship you are talking about, then I am glad that the Netherlands is investing in stuff that actually matters.
Madonna was invited and paid by a private person. The production of 2019 didn’t spent that money on her. What they did spend money on is a decent security, so we didn’t have the 2018 mic grab, 2017 ass show or the 2010 random person hanging out on stage for like half a minute.
Where the money came from does not really matter. The argument is that NL can afford the LED screen because they are rich, while Israel was spending way more altogether, making very bad choices.
Not a big fan of those ”semi transparent” LEDs. They been used since 2007 I think. The problem is that the gap between the pixels is so big that it can’t create a smooth image and on camera it creates all sorst of visual noise.
But technology has evolved during those years; in the 2000s it was very distracting, but if you look at this video you will notice that the modern technology nowadays is much better;
https://youtu.be/ZFlsf1wwpkU
The trick is the same even if the pixels used are smaller etc. The big gaps will create all sorts of ”waves” and distortions especially while lense zooming in/out. If you look closer you can see those ”waves” even in the video you attached.
I can because it’s not like they are using something that never used before. Those see through LEDs are being used a lot.
Woooh maybe this LED has something to do with the postcard transition?
Lithuania will look amazing on this stage.
this will be very interesting but i hope artists won’t overuse leds for their performances
Ok this is cool. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
See? Complain about Florian Wieder all you want, but the simple fact is that nobody is better than him at this.
Looks great and I hope that for once the delegations actually use the stage gimmick, as almost no one uses the stage gimmicks available every year: – the rising platform in 2013 was only used by Bonnie Tyler – the water in 2014 was only used by Poland if I’m correct – the ‘eye’ effect was also not used by a lot of countries – you could walke between the LED’s in 2016 and precisely 0 entries did that – only Bulgaria and Slovenia used ‘the chandelier’ in 2017 – not a lot of entrants used the bridges in 2018… Read more »
The bigger thing with 2014 I thought were those long catwalks, which at least a couple acts (I’m thinking Poland and Switzerland) took advantage of.
It seems a bit like the screen U2 used on their recent tour, which also divided the audience. Maybe smaller. You can see that one in this video if you want to get an idea of what it was like and how it worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sdtgp01I8w
Woow thanks! It looks amazing!
The Netherlands is a more than capable country to deliver a great show so, I hope it turns out great. I just don’t want bland staging.
I dont know what this is but WHY NOT
Wonderful idea. But imagine the people in the stands behind the screen. the screen will be SEMI transparent so people will see the screen as much as the singer behind it. Moreover, if they put the scoreboards on this screen, people will not be able to understand anything because they will have to read backwards.
There will be screens elsewhere in the audience for them to see I’m sure
It looks really promising and interesting. You can find a similar type of screen if you look up “Transparent LED Wall” on YouTube; it looks very futuristic And of course it depends on how often the entries will use it, but I remember from an interview that they try to encourage delegations to make use of all the technology this year. I think they did notice from previous years that not everyone took advantage of it. And otherwise they can use it often for other things, like showing the country’s flag, artist and composers’ names, song title, and even the… Read more »
It would kinda look like the 1996 voting, which visually is just as impressive as 24 years ago. And besides, usually there are two screens on each side of the stage displaying the TV broadcast, so the audience in the arena would still be able to follow the voting.
Oops, that was supposed to be the reply to Coco55’s comment.
But I agree that the screen could be used in many ways, in particular the song and artist introduction could be very effective if done correctly, I can imagine something along the lines of ESC 2010 postcards but even better.
The more countries use big technology, the more entries will profit from using simplicity. See Duncan Laurence and his piano only.
Netherlands will give us the best shows ever!!
looks stunning, best stage ever..
Really cool feature, looking forward to it. You can find the (similar) type of technology when you search on Transparent LED wall on YouTube. Looks really futuristic. And of course it depends on how often the entries will use it, but I remember from an interview that they try to encourage delegations to make use of all the technology this year. I think they did notice from previous years that not everyone took advantage of it. And otherwise they can use it often for other things, like showing the country’s flag, artist and composers’ names, song title, and even the… Read more »
I will reserve my opinions until I actually see it in use during rehearsals and so I can decide whether it is used effectively for each performance. We all remember features like 2015’s “kinetic sculpture” playing a minimal role other than in the opening ceremony, or even 2018’s catwalk and bridge which faced a similar lack of use.
I hope artists will actually use such special features this time. Last year I only remeber 2 countries that used the triangles in Tel Aviv.
Yeah, Belgium and Austria and both didn’t even make the finals.
I really loved how Austria used the triangles! Such a shame that a really cool feature like that was not used more. But it might be because the delegations already had the stagings mostly planned out and didn’t bother trying to figure out how to use these?
This looks very cool and promising!