Music ESC organizers call on Basel's creative artists to take part

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2025 in Basel should not just be a TV show. At an information event for the Basel cultural scene on Monday evening, those responsible called on those present to contribute something to the "big city festival".

Restraint is not the order of the day for the ESC 2025 in Basel. Those responsible from the canton of Basel-Stadt and SRG are expecting a lively city festival. It will take place around the main events broadcast throughout Europe and the world in mid-May in the St. Jakobshalle, with public rehearsals, the semi-finals and, of course, the final on May 17.

From May 10, hundreds of thousands of fans are expected in addition to the up to 15,000 accredited participants, said SRG Executive Producers Reto Peritz and Moritz Stalder from SRG. They should meet a city in which the ESC is really lived. And in this respect, Basel has beaten off the national competition to host the world's biggest event.

Basel wants to turn the axis from Badisches to SBB railroad station into an ESC boulevard - with the Rhine embankment, Exhibition Hall 1, Barfüsserplatz with large stages and Steinenvorstadt with small stages as hotspots, said Basel event managers Beat Läuchli (overall project management) and Lorenz Schibler (responsible for the ESC Village at the Basel Exhibition Center).

Events with local acts wanted

Events are now being sought for these areas and show stages, which was an appeal to the 80 or so cultural event organizers present at the information event - be it professional performances by local and regional acts on show stages or by street musicians from all over the world.

The program for the big pre-show of the Public View Arena Plus in the St Jakobs-Park football stadium will remain in the hands of SRG, while the program in the ESC Club in the Messe event hall will be put together by the fan clubs.

Those responsible are still cautious about the exact program. They only announced that the largest turquoise carpet in ESC history would be rolled out for the opening ceremony at Messe Basel on 11 May and that local organizers could exceptionally apply for Swisslos funds for ESC-specific contributions more than once a year.

The canton of Basel-Stadt has allocated a sum of 37 million Swiss francs for the staging of the ESC. The Federal Democratic Union (EDU) is collecting signatures for a referendum against this loan, which the party says will be submitted on Saturday.

SDA