Eurovision Song Festival 4

The Eurovision Song Festival 4 will be the 4th edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. It will take place in the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. This will be the first time the contest will take place in Finland. The contest is expected to consist of two semi-finals on 29 July and the final on 29 July 2017.

On the 27th of June, the EBO confirmed that a total of 44 countries will be present in the fourth edition of the Eurovision Song Festival.

## Location

### **Bidding phase**

On 5 July 2017, the EBO confirmed that five cities were in the race to host the fourth edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. The host city will be announced on the 5th of July 2017. The head of the contest, Adéla Bronislava, announced that the host city announcement will take place on 22:30 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, five cities were submitted to host the contest. The following cities are in the race to host the contest:
  †   Host venue
  ‡   Shortlisted

 Espoo

### **Venue**

Hartwall Arena (previously known until 19 March 2014 as Hartwall Areena, often called Helsinki Areena, Helsingin Areena or Helsingforsarenan ('The Helsinki Arena') by the Finnish press) is a large multi-functional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland. Opened in 1997, the arena gets its name from its largest sponsor, the beverage company Hartwall, also based in Helsinki.

The idea of building the arena came from Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo in 1994. It was built to be ready for the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1997 and was delivered by the constructor on 11 April 1997. The building is elliptical, 153 metres long and 123 metres wide. 37 meters under ground there is a practice arena which is used by many hockey teams.

The arena is situated next to Pasila railway station, which is the second busiest railway station in Finland, 3.5 km north of Helsinki Central.

Total capacity in ice hockey games is 13,349 (all seats). The arena is convertible for various events. For sport events, the capacity is about 10,000, about 14,000 for basketball, for concerts about 13,000, and as an amphitheatre, 3,000-5,000. It is connected to a multi-storey carpark, which has a total capacity of 1,421 vehicles.

The arena is currently the biggest entertainment venue in the country, with many artists having performed at the arena, spanning a wide range of music genres.

Hartwall Arena is the home venue of the ice hockey team Jokerit.

The arena has also been used for Ice Hockey World Championships, World Figure Skating Championships, NHL Challenge, and World Cup of Hockey. In May 2011, Hartwall Arena served as the main venue of the 2012 IIHF World Championship. It hosted all Group A games and quarterfinals, all semifinals and all medal games. Group B games and quarterfinals were hosted in Ericsson Globe, Stockholm. It also co-hosted the 2013 IIHF World Championship with Ericsson Globe, but in 2013 all games after quarterfinals were played in Stockholm.

The group stage of EuroBasket 2017 will be played at the Hartwall Arena.

## Other countries

 Andorra - Andorra confirmed that they proposed their participation plan to the government, but that it was opposed.

 Belgium - VRT and RTBF confirmed that they don't have interest in returning.

 Luxembourg - Luxembourg confirmed that they have no interest in debuting.

 Kosovo - RTK confirmed that they really want to join, but are not allowed yet.

 Norway - Norway has confirmed that talks regarding a participation are still underway. Later, NRK confirmed that Norway won't debut this edition.

 Sweden - After showing interest in debuting, Sweden confirmed that they won't join this edition.