Eurovision Song Contest expected to attract 10,000 to Ukraine's capital (05/01/05)

A Ukrainian Summer: where to go, what to do...

Eurovision Song Contest expected to attract 10,000 to Ukraine's capital

by Vasyl Pawlowsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Once again, millions of viewers worldwide will be setting their sights on Ukraine.

They won't be watching protests on Kyiv's streets or the political intrigue. Instead, they'll witness the 50th Eurovision Song Contest between May 19 and 21.

While Ruslana Luzhychko won the 2004 contest in Istanbul with her song "Wild Dances," this time around she'll be hosting the event with boxing champion Volodymyr Klitschko and well-known Ukrainian DJ Pasha.

An estimated 10,000 people are expecting to descend upon Kyiv, along with journalists from 39 countries. Preparations have been moving at breakneck speed, organizers said.

"I am doing everything to ensure that Ukraine is seen in a positive light in the eyes of the world," said Pavlo Hrytsak, the vice-president of National Television Company and Eurovision's executive producer. "We are a part of Europe and part of a larger global community, and we want to make Ukraine shine during Eurovision."

Organizers, including the European Broadcasting Union, have been preparing Kyiv's Sports Palace, securing sponsorships and adjusting the technical aspects. Many young and enthusiastic people have joined as volunteers to help out with the mammoth Eurovision project, Mr. Hrytsak noted.

"One of the finer details that some people would not consider to be important - but I am sure Ukrainians abroad should appreciate this," said Marko Markovic, a Coratian who is the press officer for Eurovision 2005, "[is that] we convinced the European Broadcast Union, who initiated the contest 50 years, that Kyiv should be spelled with a 'y' and not the way it is transliterated from Russian."

Renovation of the Sports Palace has fallen behind because of the recent political upheaval and change in government, and local media reports questioned whether it would be ready for the event.

"You can never be on schedule when you are working on Eurovision," Sven Stojanovic, a Swede who produced the last two shows, said in an interview published on the Eurovision.ua website. "But things aren't so bad as they were in previous years. We did good shows in Riga and Istanbul, and this year in Kyiv we will do better."

Other criticism surrounded the Eurovision Song Contest itself.

After Ukraine's Eurovision final had selected Gryndzholy of Ivano-Frankivsk to represent the nation with "Razom Nas Bahato," the Orange Revolution's anthem, some media reported that Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian and Social Issues Mykola Tomenko had meddled in the selection process.

"It doesn't really matter who won," said Hennadii Kurochka of CFC Consulting, the marketing company for Gryndzholy, Ukraine's entry in Eurovision this year. "It is our job to promote Gryndzholy, just as we did with Ruslana prior to Eurovision last year." The group is now on a 15-country, 24-day promotional tour of Europe.

Gryndzholy - known in English as Greenjolly - will automatically make it into the final because the rules of the contest allow the representatives of the top 10 countries in the previous year's contest to advance.

How Gryndzholy fare in the final will depend on both the job CFC Consulting does in promoting them and how television viewers ultimately will vote.

CFC Consulting and Nova Pora (which includes activists of the Pora group of Orange Revolution fame) will provide complementary accommodation services for Kyiv's visitors.

"For those visitors, particularly students and journalists, who may have a limited budget, we will be setting up a tent city on Trukhaniv Island, in the center of the Dnipro, and we're calling it EuroCamp 2005," said Olena Hantsiak-Kaskiv, the event's Support Committee chair.

"Not only will visitors to our capital have a chance to be here during Eurovision, they will be able to enjoy the outdoors. And this will allow our guests who were not here during the events of the Orange Revolution to experience the spirit and character of those who participated in it."

While the expense of staying in one of Kyiv's hotels may be out of range for some, the EuroCamp-2005 will provide comfortable tents, sleeping bags, transportation to and from the center of Kyiv, as well as entertainment, and a healthy atmosphere for $13 (U.S.) per day, she said. (For more information readers will soon be able to log on to www.eurocamp.org.ua.)

But it is the show that is most important. As Eurovision's producer, Mr. Hrytsak, underscored, "We've been working extremely hard to ensure that this is a successful event, and we are not alone in doing so. We have the good fortune to be working with the European Broadcast Union, and the producers and technical specialist they have hired, who are some of the best in Europe, are working side by side with our specialists to ensure that this is one of the best Eurovisions ever." (The Eurovison 2005 website is www.eurovision.ua.)

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