It’s a little city not far from San Marino. And after expressing its interest to host Eurovision 2022 back in May, Pesaro has now formally submitted a bid to Italian broadcaster RAI.
Pesaro submits bid to host Eurovision 2022
Following on from Turin, Pesaro is the second city to formally throw its name in the hat for Eurovision 2022. The municipality’s mayor Matteo Ricci shared the following note in Italian on Facebook:
“We meet all the necessary parameters for participation: the presence of an international airport that doesn’t take more than one hour and thirty minutes, one hotel offer of over 2,000 rooms in areas adjacent to the event and infrastructure, the Vitrifrigo Arena, which meets the necessary criteria.
The venue is one of Italy’s greatest, among the most beautiful and suggestive frames to host concerts and shows. Pesaro is a UNESCO City of Music, boasts an important musical tradition and a dynamic cultural life that has consistently favoured a climate of experimentation and dialogue between all the arts”.
Pesaro and the Vitrifrigo Arena
Pesaro boasts a population of roughly 95,000 inhabitants. Located on the Adriatic coast, it is the capital of the Province of Pesaro e Urbino. It’s about 30 minutes away from the Federico Fellini International Airport in Rimini and less than an hour’s drive from the Most Serene Republic of San Marino. While the city itself may be relatively small, it is has one of Italy’s largest venues — The Vitrifrigo Arena.
The arena is home to the Victoria Libertas Pesaro basketball team. The venue is about 12,000 square metres in size, with capacity for up to 10,000 audience members. While questions remain as to where ancillary facilities such as the press room might be located, the venue’s availability is confirmed. There are no events scheduled to take place there after 4 March 2022.
Eurovision 2022 host city bidding process
The Eurovision 2022 host city race opened last week. The window for submitting bids is brief — the closing date is tomorrow Monday 12 July. At the time of writing, only Turin and Pesaro have gone public with their submissions. However, several other cities have already made declarations of interest.
Italian broadcaster RAI has issued some very important parameters for the candidate cities. In order to host Eurovision 2022, a city must have an international airport no more than 90 minutes from the city. It should also have over 2,000 hotel rooms in the area close to the event and an infrastructure capable of hosting a large-scale live broadcast.
The venue must fulfil several requirements as well, such as being indoors and having air-conditioning and a well-defined perimeter. The arena should have an audience capacity in the main hall of at least 8,000 – 10,000 during the event and a main hall that can house the set and all other requirements needed to produce a high-level broadcast production.
It’s also worth mentioning that those 8,000 – 10,000 people should correspond to 70% of the maximum capacity of that venue for regular concerts, as the specific stage and production needs of Eurovision should be taken into consideration. The venue should also have ample space within easy access of the main hall to support additional production needs, such as: a press centre capable of hosting over 1,000 journalists; delegation spaces, dressing rooms, artist facilities, staff facilities, hospitality, audience facilities.
Most importantly, the infrastructure must be available exclusively for six weeks before the event, two weeks during the show in May and a week after the end of the event for dismantling. That’s nine weeks.
Given the requirements, it’s almost a given that two cities will be out of the running. Sanremo, the city where it all started, with its renowned Festival di Sanremo, does not meet most of the requirements. The lack of a suitable venue is the most evident, as Teatro Ariston only holds 2,000 people. It doesn’t look good for Verona neither, as their proposal of hosting in Arena di Verona — the fantastic set for Diodato’s live performance of “Fai Rumore” — is an open-air venue.
What do you make of Pesaro’s bid? Where do you hope Eurovision 2022 takes place? Let us know below.
“We meet all the necessary parameters for participation: the presence of an international airport […]” – According to the website of the airport, most (if not every) of the few provided destinations listed there are seasonal beginning somewhere in july, august or september. Have fun with an airport that basically no one will be able to reach.
Pesaro’s Arena can host if San Marino wins. But 2022 is Turin all the way!
It’d be great to have Pesaro that way SM can save some coin and put it into their entry. Also, fans would be able to visit it.
Well it’s nice that they applied but they 100% won’t get it.
It will be Torino. Thats it.
I wonder how many cities will say they submitted a bid after the 12th which is tomorrow.