Eurovision Song Contest 2018: Lisbon

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was organized by the Portuguese public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP).

When was Eurovision 2018?

The Eurovision week had three shows: Semi-final 1 on Tuesday, Semi-final 2 on Thursday and the Grand Final on Saturday:

• Semi-final 1: 8 May 2018
• Semi-final 2: 10 May 2018
• Grand Final: 12 May 2018

All the shows started at 21:00 CEST.

Hosts of Eurovision 2018 were Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah & Catarina Furtado.

How to watch Eurovision 2018

The Semi-finals and the Grand Final were shown on TV in the participating countries. Some of the countries only broadcasted the Semi-final in which the country was participating.

• The live shows were also streamed live on YouTube
• The live streams were without commentary
• USA, Canada, Brazil and South Korea: The streams were be available without a VPN
• Viewers from USA could watch the Grand Final live via Logo TV or via VPN

Host City: Lisbon

The Portuguese public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) announced on 15 May 2017 that Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will be held in Lisbon. This was confirmed on 25 July 2017 by RTP.

Besides Lisbon, other cities had shown interest for hosting Eurovision 2018: Guimarães, Gondomar, Faro and Santa Maria da Feira.

Arena: Altice Arena

Location: Rossio dos Olivais, 1990-231 Lisboa, Portugal Google Maps
Metro station: "Oriente" Red Line

The arena for Eurovision 2018 was Altice Arena (former called MEO Arena, originally Pavilhão Atlântico).

The Altice Arena is perfect for a huge event like Eurovision Song Contest. With a capacity of 20,000 it is one of the largest indoor arenas in the EU. The arena is placed very central in Lisbon with well branched infrastructure.

The Altice Arena has hosted several big events, including:

• 1999: World Youth Championship in basketball (under 19)
• 2005: MTV Europe Music Awards
• Concerts: Justin Bieber, Adele, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue

The stage was designed by Florian Wieder, and was inspired by the hull of a ship and reflected Portugal's history and culture.

Participants

43 countries participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018:

Who's in which Semi-final?

The semi-final allocation draw for Eurovision Song Contest 2018 took place on 29 January 2018 in the City Hall of Lisbon. The draw determined which countries are allocated to which of the two semi-finals.

Tickets

Tickets were released in batches. The first batch of tickets for Eurovision 2018 went on sale on 30 November 2017, and the 4th and last batch of tickets went on sale on 5 April 2018. Read more: How to get tickets for Eurovision 2018

Eurovision Village: Praça do Comércio

Google Maps
Metro station: "Terreiro do Paço" Blue Line
When: 4 May to 12 May 2018

Eurovision Village was the official festival area in Lisbon during Eurovision Song Contest 2018. In Eurovision Village you could see live performances by artists, DJs, special events and public viewing of the shows broadcasted from the Arena.

Eurovision Village was held at Praça do Comércio (also called "Terreiro do Paço"). Praça do Comércio is the largest of Lisbon's squares located just next to the Tagus river. The square has traditional painted buildings lining the three sides and a magnificent statue of King José I positioned in the centre. Praça do Comércio was traditional where traders would sell their foreign goods.

Euroclub: Ministerium

Location: Ministerium at Praça do Comércio (right next to Eurovision Village) Google Maps
Metro station: "Terreiro do Paço" Blue Line
When: 6 May to 12 May 2018

The Euro Club was the venue for some special parties, the official after parties and performances by participants.

Access to Euroclub was for accredited persons in the categories fans (F), delegations (D) and press (P). There were not special OGAE accreditations for OGAE members (like Malmö 2013 and Stockholm 2016), and fans did not have access to Euroclub with special tickets (like Copenhagen 2014 and Kyiv 2017).

It was earlier announced that Euroclub would have taken placein the Dance & Night Club Lust in Rio in the Cais do Sodré neighborhood in Lisbon, but that has changed due to security issues. The new location was the club Ministerium, right next to Eurovision Village.

Euro Café: MoMe

Location: Avenue 24 de Julho 68, 1200-869 Lisboa, Portugal Google Maps
When: 5 May to 12 May 2018
Train station: Santos

Euro Café (also known as Euro Fan Café) was the place for fans to meet for parties and special events during the Eurovision week.

Euro Café opened its doors for Eurovision fans from 5 May to 12 May, and was located at MoMe Lisboa – one of the newest clubs in Lisbon. MoMe has three different floors: Restaurant, bar and discotheque. Every evening, there were two dance floors with different DJs on each, and some nights, there were live performances.

The programme was divided into two parts: Day and night. The daytime programme was opened to the public while the nightly events was, due to space restrictions, only opened to OGAE members who had bought a weekly pass for Euro Café.

Blue Carpet: Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT)

Location: Av. Brasília, 1300-598 Lisboa, Portugal Google Maps
Train station: Belém, Linha de Cascais (Three stops with regional train from Cais do Sodré)
Website: maat.pt

The Red Carpet (or actually blue carpet) took place at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) on Sunday 6 May 2018.

At the Blue Carpet all the contestants were presented for the press, fans and guests with lots of beautiful dresses, festivities and selfies.

After the Blue Carpet, the Opening Ceremony of Eurovision 2018 took place at Lisbon's Electricity Museum.