How We Became the Host Venue for Eurovision 2023

Eurovision Song Contest 2023

With tremendous efforts from our entire team here at ACC Liverpool, we were extremely proud to be the official venue Eurovision 2023.

But how did we secure being the Eurovision hosts of this prestigious contest? We’ll be sharing an inside perspective into how and why Liverpool became the official host city for Eurovision this year.

Read on to learn more about our journey to becoming the host venue of Eurovision 2023, along with the key motivators that encouraged us to bid for the title…

What is Eurovision?

For those who don’t know, Eurovision is the most recognised international singing competition, founded in 1956 by the EBU (European Broadcasting Union).

Countries from all across Europe (and Australia!) compete with original and creative material, broadcasted on a global scale, with the country securing the most votes crowned the winner.

For the UK, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the official broadcaster for the event, and we’ve worked closely with the organisation throughout our journey to becoming the official host venue.

Why the UK hosted the 67th Eurovision song contest

Kalush Orchestra, representing Ukraine, rightfully took the winner’s spot in Eurovision 2022, with the UK securing the second place title, thanks to Sam Ryder’s immaculate performance of his hit song, ‘Space Man’.

As tradition goes, Ukraine was set to become the host country this year, as they were the country who won Eurovision 2022. However, due to Russia’s invasion and in the interest of safety and security, it was sadly confirmed that Ukraine wouldn’t be able to host Eurovision 2023, despite its best efforts.

As the UK were the runners-up, naturally, the EBU decided to award our country as the host this year.

Why ACC Liverpool wanted to be the host of Eurovision 2023

Many driving forces contributed to why we wanted to host Eurovision 2023!

The unique cultural and musical scene of Liverpool

Our city is renowned for its thriving, friendly culture and rich musical history, with our most famous affiliation being that we are the birthplace of The Beatles! Liverpool is truly one of a kind, and we strongly believe that our city has much to offer large-scale events, such as Eurovision 2023.

So, when the opportunity arose to become the venue to host Eurovision 2023, we felt compelled to put ourselves forward for consideration. Now that we’ve secured being the host venue, we’ve received tremendous support from the entire city.

Our communities and our people are proud, and it’s all down to them that we were able to secure this prestigious event for ACC Liverpool.

So, there’s no doubt that the city of Liverpool will welcome all visitors from across the globe with open arms, and we can’t wait to share our rich-in-culture city with the rest of the world.

We have experience in large-scale, international event hosting

We’ve always strived to bring value to Liverpool, with our campus and services used frequently for a wide variety of events, conferences, concerts, exhibitions and more.

The ACC Liverpool campus, which includes the M&S Bank Arena, has been the venue of choice for a multitude of large-scale events and operations, such as the MTV Europe Music Awards, the MOBOs, and most recently, the Labour Party Conference, to name a few.

Our extensive prior experience in international hosting, along with our faith in the city, gave us the confidence to put our venue forward, as these events have always been an integral part of our work here at ACC Liverpool. We have incredibly talented and highly skilled departments that allow us to provide impeccable service, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved.

A fantastic opportunity to deliver growth investment to Liverpool

We’ve always been focused on driving revenue and growth opportunities to Liverpool - because we truly believe we have so much to offer as a city!

Liverpool’s cultural offering, along with the people in it, make it an incredible place to live and visit, and we continue to strive to leave a positive legacy for our city. So, being able to attract transnational interest to Liverpool and showcase what we’ve got to offer has always been our priority, and international events allow us to do this.

Being awarded the venue of choice for Eurovision 2023 is something that we feel is an incredible achievement, not only for us, but for the city as a whole. Liverpool possesses a distinctive energy and liveliness, and we’re proud to be the ones to showcase it to the world.

Our talented ACC Liverpool teams

At ACC Liverpool, we’ve got a strong, highly skilled team of experts across a broad range of events, production, marketing and sales specialities.
We offer the internal infrastructure and in-house talent required to host large-scale international events, and we had every ounce of faith that, together, we had what it took to make our city and Eurovision proud. So, we put our best foot forward as a venue and submitted our proposal for consideration!

Supporting Ukraine

Our main focus throughout this entire process has been to ensure that we make the people of Ukraine proud. At ACC Liverpool, we strongly believe that we have what it takes to host in honour of Ukraine, and we continue to support and show solidarity with Ukraine and its ongoing struggle.

Bidding for Eurovision 2023

Once confirmed that the UK would be the official host country of Eurovision 2023, we immediately went straight to the drawing board and made a plan.

We started by submitting a formal proposal to the EBU and the BBC, which detailed the relevant information about our venue and the logistics behind why Liverpool was the best city for Eurovision 2023. From hotel accommodations to cultural attractions and hospitality hotspots, we showcased the overwhelming value we could bring to Eurovision 2023!

We then worked with the EBU’s strict vetting processes and standards to ensure that ACC Liverpool met its criteria, proving we had the necessary resources to host a large-scale event. This process consisted of various on-site visits, where we worked alongside the BBC production team to review our event infrastructure in every capacity.

We had the support of the entire city rallying behind us, which made a significant difference in our ability to secure Eurovision 2023. From the people of Liverpool and the City Council to the countless organisations within the city that helped with getting our proposal off the ground, we couldn’t have done it without every single one of them.

Securing the title of the Eurovision 2023 host city was a long and meticulous process, with no stone left unturned - which ultimately saw us go head-to-head with the beautiful city of Glasgow, located in Scotland.

Although our worthy opponents over in Glasgow also had tremendous value to offer, ACC Liverpool was awarded the honour of hosting the 67th Eurovision song contest!

Liverpool has an envious track record for being able to deliver some of the biggest and most successful events in the UK. And, one of the major draws to ACC Liverpool was the flexibility we’re able to offer. Our first-class venue campus, people and state-of-the-art facilities mean we’re able to host such a broad range of events throughout the year, which was a significant factor in our selection as the host city.

The collective energy of the city is overwhelming excitement, with local and neighbouring businesses looking forward to welcoming all those visiting us for the first time. This year will also see us celebrate our 15th year since we opened in 2008, so we couldn’t have wished for a better time to host Eurovision.

The ACC Liverpool teams involved with Eurovision 2023

Since securing the bid, we were taking an all-hands-on-deck approach. Every single one of us here at ACC Liverpool, along with our friends over at the BBC and the city, were involved in making Eurovision 2023 a reality.

BBC’s events and production teams were incredibly helpful throughout this entire process, to achieve the best results possible. The EBU and the BBC had a design goal for the event, and together, we worked around the clock to bring this creative vision to life.

Eurovision 2023 at ACC Liverpool has been a collaborative endeavour with the EBU and BBC, and having all our talented team members coming together to achieve our objectives is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

ACC Liverpool worked closely with the relevant local authorities, who were a tremendous help with getting the logistical plans together. From Merseyside Police and the Liverpool City Council to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport - we worked hard to ensure that our incredible city was ready to deliver a smooth and successful event, ensuring the safety of our visitors.

Eurovision 2023

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading how we became the host venue for Eurovision 2023 and why we wanted to take on this incredible opportunity.

Becoming the host of Eurovision 2023 is definitely a “pinch me” moment for all of us here at ACC Liverpool. We’re beyond proud to have shown the world what Liverpool has to offer, putting our beautiful city on the map once and for all.

Legacy

Eurovision will leave a lasting legacy for our city. For more information, have a look at:

Find out more about hosting a large-scale event at ACC Liverpool today

For more news, advice and up-to-date information on what’s happening here in Liverpool, check out the ACC Liverpool News and Events Hub…

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