Tuesday arrived and we were OFF TO AN ACTUAL EUROVISION SHOW! Absolute mega-planning required as only tiny bags are allowed into the arena, worried about queues at car park, for security….and that’s before the glitter application (it dripped, Paul’s first time painting with it after all).

Arriving at the arena there were already long queues. And sequins. Everywhere. Also full of TV crews and bloggers roaming about interviewing fans. Faintly ludicrous juxtaposition of the EV crowd – all glitter and love from across Europe – and police with machine guns. 

As it happened, we sailed through everything and were in our seats over an hour before the start of the show. This was the afternoon family show so it was a relaxed atmosphere in the fairly compact arena and a fab opportunity to people-watch and spot the best costumes.

Rylan sprinted past us in a rush to get back-stage just before the start (no idea why he had to run round the arena to do this) which caused much excitement. As this was a rehearsal show, there were lots of giggles arising from the stand-in crew and actors playing the part of performers in the green room.

The performers were all surprisingly strong, with a number of songs that I hadn’t rated putting on a really strong performance that the crowd loved (didn’t save them from the televote that night though). Similarly, while the crowd still reacted strongly, some performances – such as Sweden – are staged purely for TV.

It was strange watching a stage show that’s being televised. Quite often you couldn’t see the performer as they had their back to the audience, or were in a prop, for a camera shot, or there was a camera crew right in front of the artist, blocking the audience’s view of them.

You can’t see it on TV but there are 2 giant crane camera overlords that swoop out across the heads of the standing audience. I’m full of admiration for the stage crew – often 2-3 dozen people on stage clearing one act and wheeling on the next’s props, often in about 2 minutes. As reported, Loreen’s took the longest to set up as the hanging element is brought on then hoisted up on cables. Then she’s wheeled on the stage already lying on her box and there’s a further delay while they fill the stage with smoke. Magic takes time don’t you know…

Various cameramen (and they were all men as far as I could see) have to sprint on and off stage, downs steps,  in seconds to get out of shots, with the Netherlands’ rotating podium meaning a cameraman standing opposite the singers on the edge of the podium, with someone hanging on to him, and someone running alongside the back of it to ensure it’s all working. Each time a presenter is delivering a section, there are 6-10 people standing around behind the camera – mostly with clipboards as far as I could tell! The scale of the production is genuinely astonishing. 

And then we poured back out, a sea of sequins and flags, out into the sun. I’d wanted to go to the fan village or maybe back over to Lush for a Danish special session but L wanted to go back home ‘to prepare for the semi final’. So home we went and sat down to watch it all over again on TV.