Having Fun is Hard Work

My plane to Copenhagen got in early, thanks to SAS and a nice tailwind along the way. My new EMV card worked perfectly when I went to buy my train ticket to Malmö. No problems. No issues. It saved me from a thirty person deep line at the teller window.

I was able to find the hostel easily thanks to a little Google Streetview research beforehand. I checked into the hostel at 5 pm and got to the arena around 6:30 pm. It took some work figuring out how to get there and back using the buses. I made it in one piece thanks to the helpful bus drivers one each line.

 I'll take you on a short tour of the arena before, during, and after the program.

Before:

Welcome to the show. An ad from my favorite program sponsor.

Shirts, caps, stars, feather boas, and baby clothes for sale.

The audience finding their seats. The catwalk for the artists splits the section in two.

The Green Room where the artists hang out after their performance. 

You have to get snacks for the show.

The house band entertains the crowd before the big show.

One of the producers of the show came out and spoke with the crowd, joked, and explained what he wanted us to do at different times. He gave us signals when we could clap and when we should quiet down. Another gentleman spoke with our section directly, letting us know that we should try to stay put during the performances between 8pm and 9pm, but if we had to leave, we should try to step gingerly around the recording equipment. We were so close to the camera cranes, we could have reached our hands out and grabbed them. Our section also sat next to an HD display showing what the TV audience would see.

During:

The opening of the show was in English with a smidgen of French mixed in for the Eurovision sketch. The sketch joked about Sweden hosting Eurovision this year and poked fun at how Sweden is seen abroad. You'll see it tomorrow during the live show.

Here are a few snippets of each artist's performance on Friday (pardon my camera's audio/video drops). These clips give an idea of what a live audience sees and what TV viewers at home see since our section sat near an HD screen with the live TV feed.

Army of Lovers - Rockin' the Ride

Lucia Pinera - Must Be Love (The songwriter just won a Grammy in the US!)

Robin Stjernberg - You

Sylvia Vrethammar - Trivialitet

Ralf Gyllenhammar - Bed on Fire

Behrang Miri  - Jalla Dansa Sawa

Terese Fredenwall - Breaking the Silence

Ulrik Munther - Tell the World I'm Here

In a live show, the audience would vote at this point. While the votes are "tabulated", the show continues with a humor sketch and a musical performance. The humor sketch is about rejected songs that were sent in to the contest. Another is a live performance by a well-known and well-loved band called Alcazar. The entire crowd stood up and clapped during their performance.

Since this is only practice, the show randomly chooses the winners. The artists and tech crew doesn't know who will be picked in order to replicate the live experience on Saturday. This time, Sylvia and Ralf won so they were able to play their songs again for the crowd. The show hosts repeated the "results" and waved goodbye to the cameras. 

After:

The audience filed out of the arena while the press descended upon the Green Room and the artists. Many fans waited outside to see if the artists would sign items or chat with them after the press was finished. After a few minutes, guards came and started ushering people out of the arena. The artists will still chatting with the press during this time, so they did not have the opportunity to meet with fans.

The entire show will repeat again a second practice tomorrow afternoon. Then the big live event will happen later on at 8 pm. It is shown live on TV and the Internet for anyone to see. I will post the link here tomorrow before it starts. The show can be viewed from any country.

A few things surprised me about being there in person. One was the size of the arena. The arena is supposed to be huge but it felt quite small. It may be because the arrangers decided not using the full capacity of the arena even though they could sell-out every show. It is assumed they're keeping full capacity for Eurovision instead. Another surprise is the amount of cameras in the building and how much they move about. I didn't think the cameras stood still, yet I didn't think they covered every inch of the arena either. 

A huge camera on a crane just behind my head. I could have put my arm out and reached it.

The choreography of the tech crew also impressed me. Some of the show act have elements that are not easy to stage. One has a moving throne, another has a flaming piano, a third has giant acrylic letters that have to be placed and buffed by hand in a matter of seconds. It's both exhausting and fascinating to watch.

Changing the acrylic letters out for a piano

A fire extinguisher - just in case.

Hearts raining down during the Army of Lovers performance

The tech crew using leaf blowers to clear the stage of all the hearts before the second act.