Junior Eurovision Song Festival 3

Final date
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Conductor
 Director
 Executive supervisor
 Host broadcaster
 Interval act
 Number of entries
 Debuting countries
 Withdrawing countries

Participation map
* Participating countries     Past participants that did not participate
 Voting system
 Null points
 Winning song

The Junior Eurovision Song Festival 3 will be the 3rd edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Festival. It will take place in the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary. This will be the first time the contest will take in Budapest. The contest is expected to consist of one final at 25 October 2018.

On the 8th of October 2018, the EBO confirmed that a total of 20 countries will be present in the third edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Festival.

## Location

### **Bidding phase**

On 1 October 2018, the EBO confirmed that three cities were in the race to host the third edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Festival. The host city will be announced on the 8th of October 2018. The head of the contest, Jana Dapčević, announced that the host city announcement will take place on 21:00 CET.

The broadcasters had to announce the city, the venue and the capacity for the show. In the end, three cities were submitted to host the contest. The following cities are in the race to host the contest:
  †   Host venue
  ‡   Shortlisted

### **Venue**

The **Papp László Budapest Sportaréna** (Hungarian: *Papp László Budapest Sportaréna*), also known as **Budapest Sports Arena** or locally just **Arena** is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Budapest, Hungary. It is the biggest sports complex in the country and it is named after Hungarian boxer László Papp. The venue can hold up to 12,500 people in its largest concert configuration, up to 11,390 for boxing and 9,479 for ice hockey. It was built as a replacement for the Budapest Sports Hall (Hungarian: *Budapest Sportcsarnok*, or *BS* for short) which stood in the same place and was destroyed in a fire in December 1999. A long distance bus station is situated under the building.

Construction of the arena began on 30 June 2001, after the original Budapest Sportcsarnok, built in 1982, burnt to the ground on 15 December 1999. The sports hall was finished within a year and a half and the opening ceremony was held on 13 March 2003. Since 28 May 2004 the arena wears the name of Hungarian boxing great László Papp and is officially known as *Papp László Budapest Sports Arena*.

The building has a total weight of 200,000 tons and contains 50,000 tons of concrete, 2,300 tons of steel structure, more than 11,000,000 bolts and several kilometres of cable.

The state-of-the-art multifunctional plaza is capable to host almost all sort of sport events such as ball games, gymnastics competitions, ice hockey matches and athletics events, moreover spectacular and extreme sports events like motocross, jet-skiing or surfing competitions.

The arena also has a leading role in the entertainment business with regularly welcoming the greatest international stars of the music industry, as well as dance shows, operas, dramas, circus arts, musicals and a variety of other special events.

The first major international event held in the arena was the 2003 IIHF World Championship Division I, in which the hosts finished third. Next year the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships was organized in the hall between 5 and 7 March, followed by the final rounds and placement matches of the 2004 European Women's Handball Championship in December. A year later, Budapest Sports Arena hosted the 2005 World Wrestling Championships.

In 2007, the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation celebrated its 80th anniversary with a friendly match against defending Olympic and World champions Sweden, played at the arena. In a closely fought battle, Hungary finally triumphed 2–1 in overtime against the Scandinavians to the delight of their 8,000 fans.

Starting from 2008, every year in the Budapest Sports Arena takes place the Tennis Classics, an exhibition tennis tournament with participation of former and current tennis aces. During the years, Budapest welcomed players like Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl or Thomas Muster and reigning stars, such as Robin Söderling and Tomáš Berdych In addition, beside the Főnix Hall in Debrecen, Budapest Sports Arena was the other host venue of the 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship.

Between 17 and 23 April 2011, the arena was the home of the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division I. The event enjoyed particular attention by the fans throughout the week and the number of 8700 spectators that attended on the decisive last-round match between Hungary and Italy is close to equal to the figures produced by the top division World Championship final, held a week later in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Following the decision of the European Handball Federation Executive Committee, the organization rights of the 2014 European Women's Handball Championship were awarded to Croatia and Hungary. Budapest Sports Arena was set to host the conclusive stage of the tournament, including the semifinals, the bronze medal match and final.

The Final Four of the Women's EHF Champions League has been annually taking place in the arena since 2014.

The 2017 World Judo Championships was also held in the Arena.

The arena will be one of the venues of the 2022 European Men's Handball Championship.

## Format

On the 8th of May, the EBO confirmed that one final were scheduled to take place in the middle of October. There is a jury and a televote. They both decide 50% of the score.

## Participating countries

Participating countries had until 6 October 2018 to submit their applications for participation in the contest. The EBO announced on 13 October that 18 countries would participate in the contest. On 22 October 2018 the EBO confirmed that Kazakhstan would also join the Junior Eurovision Song Festival 3. On 23 October 2018, the EBO confirmed that Lebanon would be added to the list of participants.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Lebanon debuted in the contest, while no nation withdrew.

## Other countries

 Ireland - RTÉ confirmed that Ireland was looking at possibilities to return to the contest, but in the end decided not to join. There is a big chance that Ireland participates next year.