Entries about concert

Most people know I'm a big Eurovision fan. I've been twice before (2011 and 2016), plus several times to the pre-party in Amsterdam. So when it was decided Liverpool would host the 2023 contest, I naturally wanted to go. But tickets are a complete nightmare.

Part of the reason I'd only been twice before was the trauma of trying to get hold of them. There quite simply aren't enough of them, and they always sell out almost instantly. With the show being held in a relatively small arena in a country with a big fanbase that hasn't hosted for 25 years, this year was going to be an even bigger challenge than normal.

When tickets went on sale in March, I set up three laptops primed and ready. We would aim to get tickets for either the grand final or the rehearsal the night before. Amazingly I managed to get in to buy tickets for the rehearsal, and despite Ticketmaster crashing half way through was successful enough to get my hands on tickets. We were going to Eurovision!

The country was really getting into the spirit, and during April, in the south, a train headed to to London was decorated to celebrate.

Before long, it was May and Eurovision week was here. It started with the King's Coronation the weekend before, and a street party to celebrate that on our road. Then on the Tuesday and Thursday, the semi finals were live on TV, with the qualifiers for the Grand Final selected. Friday came around quickly and we were now on our way to Liverpool

I'd managed to get a hotel room in Warrington (rebooking a few weeks earlier to more than half the cost), and we headed there first. Frustratingly there as a lot of traffic up the motorway, not helped by the train strikes this weekend, and it meant it ate into our already limited time in the city.

By the time we'd checked in and made our way to Liverpool it was already almost 4:30pm, where the city was all dressed to impress.

We parked, and wandered past the Albert Dock, and towards the Liverpool One shopping centre.

There was a lot of additional activity going on in the city, and with some decent weather too it was jam packed everywhere.

We grabbed some dinner before making our way back towards the dockside, passing the Cavern Club and the Cilla Statue.

We were arriving at the Eurovision Village - a secure area with a big stage and lots of food and drink units. The sign outside said it was approximately 15 minutes to get through the security.

45 minutes later we finally made it through, but with the doors opening to the arena in around 15 minutes we didn't get to hang about that long. A shame, as it would have been good to spend more time in the area.

We exited the village and made our way through the very busy Albert Dock towards the arena.

Thankfully the security check here was pretty quiet for us, and we were quickly inside the arena. We checked out our seats and then went to grab some drinks and souvenirs.

Although it made getting tickets harder, the smaller arena did mean even our seats towards the back of the arena still gave us good views.

The show was the one the juries were voting on, and so the performances were just as important as for the live show tomorrow.

We got to see the full run through (both the acts and the intervals), and other than the fake results it was just the same.

We were told that they would fake a winner with a big stage set up, so as to ensure if one of those acts won for real tomorrow night they'd be prepared for the complexity. For us, the fake winner was the UK!

Although half the audience had left, we stayed right to the end, and saw a stage hand get up and pretend to be Mae Muller for a bit whilst the crowd went wild.

It was a long night, and it was gone past midnight before we left the arena. Upon exiting, we were exit polled on our favourite by some of the fansites.

The following morning we got up, had breakfast and then headed back home. Yesterday was a long day, and today was almost just as busy, wth the long drive back home, before watching the actual show on TV, which again would go on until past midnight.

It was a shame that it took so long to get to Liverpool, and that there was such limited hotel options. Despite the contest being in my home country I'd not had chance to witness that much of it all. But equally it had been a good experience, and nice that I'd not had to fly off and have a full on holiday to attend. Hopefully it won't be another 25 years before it returns!

So these last two weeks have been rather busy, as usual!

Last week we had the Welcome Night, which was a party organised for international students, where I got to meet up with many of those who I had not seen since last semester, as well as some of the new people who have just arrived. Then this weekend I travelled to the Netherlands to visit Roel and Johan. On Friday I took the 6 hour/4 train trip to Helmond, passing through some of the West German cities like Osnabrück, Essen & Düsseldorf. On Saturday we, along with 2 more of Roel's friends drove to Amsterdam, where we walked around the city seeing all the sights, as well as having a few drinks - including one café where the waiter had the most peculiar English accent (despite being Dutch he sounded like a true Londoner!).

Donny Montell

Jedward

In the evening we went to Eurovision In Concert, where 23 of this year's acts were singing at a pre-party before the main event in May. The event was a sell out, with over 1,300 people in the audience seeing the singers from Latvia, Turkey, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Ireland (Jedward again - What the hell???) and the Netherlands amongst others, with San Marino being a particular highlight. (The video I took is here.) Who needs Baku now?!

Pastora Soler

Compact Disco

After the show finished, there was an after party at a club round the corner, and we had free entry with our tickets. As we were walking there, I met Pastora from Spain and Trackshittaz from Austria (with whom I managed to get a photo). Some of the more 'party people' singers also went to the club, and we saw Trackshittaz again.

We then left Amsterdam at 4am, and got home about half 5, which meant we were all absolutely shattered! And so the next day was rather lazy, taking Johan to the airport, whilst me and Roel went to the cinema - my first time outside the UK (Dutchies just have subtitles). On Monday I left back for Bremen, again a 6hour/4 train affair though Dutch cities like 's-Hertogenbosch and Arnhem, where I got to see dykes!

This week has been the first with my German lessons, and they have not been going too badly. The lecturer seems to think I am one of the best in the class (she clearly hasn't seen my grammar), and I had a nice chat with her about why Geography is such a great subject to study. Yesterday I did my first lot of online shopping here, which wasn't as hard as I had feared due to it being all in German. Last night we had a little party in the dungeon with the Swedish and some others which was really nice, whilst tonight we are having the first Party House party of the semester!

Viel Spaß! Kevin.