Eurovision Song Festival 3

The Eurovision Song Festival 3 will be the 3rd edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. It will take place in the Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland. This will be the first time the contest will take place in Poland. The contest is expected to consist of two semi-finals on 23 and 23 May and the final on 24 May 2017.

On the 19th of May, the EBO confirmed that a total of 44 countries will be present in the third edition of the Eurovision Song Festival.

## Location

### **Bidding phase**

On 19 May 2017, the EBO confirmed that four cities were in the race to host the third edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. The host city will be announced on the 19th of May 2017. The head of the contest, Adéla Bronislava, announced that the host city announcement will take place on 11:00 CET.

All cities were allowed to submit a venue for hosting the contest. The cities had to announce the venue and the capacity for the show. In the end, four cities were submitted to host the contest. The following cities are in the race to host the contest:
  †   Host venue
  ‡   Shortlisted

 Kraków †

### **Venue**

Tauron Arena Kraków is an indoor arena located in Kraków, Poland. It has a seating capacity of 15,328 for sporting events. It hosted the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship tournament, 2016 European League of Legends Championship Finals and 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I. It also hosted the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship.

Tauron Arena Kraków is one of the largest and most modern entertainment and sports venues in Poland. It allows to host a variety of sports events, including badminton, boxing, curling, acrobatic and artistic gymnastics, indoor football, hockey, basketball, track and field, figure skating, volleyball, handball, martial arts, extreme sports, tennis, table tennis, equestrian competitions and sports dancing competitions.

The facility area has 61,434 m2, with maximum area of the arena court of 4 546 m2. The average capacity is 18,000 for concerts, and 15,000 for sport events, with maximum number of spectators being 22,800.

The Arena boasts Poland's largest LED media façade, with a total surface of 5,200 m2 of LED strip lighting, wrapping around the stadium, and one of Europe's largest LED screens, measuring over 540 m2.

## Format

On the 30th of March, the EBO confirmed that 2 Semi-Finals and the final were scheduled to take place in May. There is a jury and a televote. They both decide 50% of the score. There was also a big 6 pre-qualified to the final. Those countries were the host Poland, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Portugal and Lithuania.

## Participating countries

Participating countries had until 30 April 2017 to submit their applications for participation in the contest. The EBO announced on 19 May that 44 countries would participate in the contest.

Malta returned to the contest, while Belgium decided to withdraw.

## Results

### **Semi-final 1**

Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### **Semi-final 2**

Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

## Other countries

 Belgium - VRT from Belgium confirmed that Belgium would withdraw due to bad results and bad viewing figures.

 Malta - PBS from Malta revealed that Malta would return to the contest, due to high interest in the broadcasted second edition.

 Sweden - SVT from Sweden revealed that a debut in the future is not ruled out.