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ORGANISERS OF THIS year’s Eurovision Song Contest have said this afternoon that the event “will definitely take place” this May under three potential scenarios.
In a statement, Eurovision said the event will take place with semi finals on 18 and 20 May, with the final on 22 May.
“The Eurovision Song Contest will definitely make its welcome return this May despite the pandemic but, in the prevailing circumstances, it is regrettably impossible to hold the event in the way we are used to,” Martin Österdahl, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said.
Last year’s Eurovision was due to take place in Rotterdam following the Netherlands’ victory in 2019.
In December, it was announced that Lesley Roy would represent Ireland should this year’s competition go ahead.
Roy was due to perform the ‘Story of My Life’ in The Netherlands last year but the song contest was cancelled for the first time in its 65-year history. Instead, a virtual ‘song celebration’ was hosted in May featuring Roy.
Ireland has won the Eurovision song contest seven times, which included three-in-a-row in the early 1990s.
Organisers of the 2021 Eurovision want to host a socially-distanced event in line with health guidelines in the Dutch city of Rotterdam with the goal of having every act performing on stage.
Under this hoped-for scenario, a protocol to protect artists, delegations and crew on and off site will be developed and adhered to.
If there are countries who cannot travel to Rotterdam, that artist can use a recorded performance as their entry. For those who can travel, they can perform their songs live on stage.
The events will be held either with no audience at all, or a reduced audience to allow for social distancing, depending on local government guidelines.
Under the second scenario, hosts and interval acts will be the only ones in attendance in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam. All acts will use a recorded performance for their entry, or “live-on-tape”.
This scenario would allow for some attendees, pending local government advice, and there would also be some events in the Dutch city to mark the contest.
Under a lockdown scenario, the Eurovision will still go ahead without an audience with everything conducted virtually. Again, all acts will use recorded performances.
Organisers said that their health and safety plans has drawn on those already used by the likes of Formula One and Uefa.
It added that the Dutch government has given assurances that in the event a socially-distanced event can take place, as is hoped, all participating artists and delegations will be able to enter the Netherlands.
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There is ALWAYS more than one reason for an accident, blaming the driver entirely is wrong in my opinion. For instance, a reckless individual would have been noted by somebody else in the company at least once in the past 13 yrs. We will have to wait for the final report to know ALL the factors that caused this tragedy.
He woke up on thursday mornin as a train driver.. He went to sleep with a charge of reckless manslaughter of 78 people hanging over him..
His life is ruined no matter how guilty or innocent he is.. Along with all the other families who lost loved ones…
I wouldn’t make my mind up about any incident like this until a full technical report about the track/train was published,this seems all a bit too quick,he’s still in hospital FFS
Agreed. Let the man recover a bit first before charging at him with axes and burning torches.
This man should be put down after this act of negligence! Bragging on his Facebook page about goin 200 kph you would think he was a teenager. Hope he never sleeps again thinking of what he did
Have you forgotten the possibility that it may not be his fault ? An unlikely possibility maybe but angry mob mentality will do nobody any good.
I think there is the possibility that the Facebook page was a fake.
Have to agree with you there Patrick. And @ the journal.ie… why did you report yesterday that he had been charged with reckless homicide and now he faces “possible charges of reckless homicide”!? Same guy, two different qoutes??
I presume the driver didn’t get up in the morning and say ” I’m going to kill a load of passengers today” ……….
I have to agree there with the comment @ Journal. Come on guys – you’ve got a great news portal already without resorting to sensationalism. Leave that to the experts at Sky.
Hi there,
I don’t think any article yesterday said the driver was charged? There was one which said he had been detained since Thursday “for the alleged crimes of reckless homicide” but there was no mention of charges.
Hi Jennifer,
My apologies… It wasn’t here on The Journal that I read that. Got them mixed up. Damn, I hate my obsession with the news :)
Sorry Jennifer.
Ah, that’s what you get for reading your news elsewhere ;) No worries, guys.
From what I’ve read in the Spanish media, the accident occurred pretty much at the point where the train moved from AVE (high speed) lines with very advanced signaling that controls the trains’ speed and won’t allow a driver to exceed speed limits to a conventional normal speed line where signaling systems wouldn’t control the train speed but only advise the driver of it.
I think we need to wait for the dust to settle and allow the technical investigation to run its course before we jump to any conclusions about the driver.
The investigation will be very through and that’s a very high tech train so it will have onboard camera and data recorders.
They’ll go through this much like an air crash investigation.
Innocent ’til proven guilty, eh ? Oh, sorry, wrong way around for some on here. As others have said;, ignore the media speculation and wait for the full report. Media speculates to sell their product, regardless of fallout to any individual, the driver in this case. Benefit of the doubt, people, benefit of the doubt.
Innocent ’til proven guilty, eh ? Oh, sorry, wrong way around for some on here. As others have said;, ignore the media speculation and wait for the full report. Media speculates to sell their product, regardless of fallout to any individual, the driver in this case. Benefit of the doubt, people, benefit of the doubt.
have your say