Malmo is all a sparkle. Outdoors town enviornment, sequins twinkle within the mild.
Eurovision followers have been arriving in pressure, kitted out in a variety of fabulously flamboyant outfits.
Within the queue, we meet a bunch who’ve travelled from Iceland.
They’re all carrying the identical multi-coloured glittering jackets.
“United by sequins,” considered one of them quips, riffing on the competition’s slogan “United by music”.
Additional alongside we meet Eurovision superfan Dimi.
“I find it irresistible, I grew up on it,” she gushes.
She explains she is gloomy her native Australia has been knocked out, but it surely hasn’t taken the shine off the occasion.
Many within the crowd have flags draped over their shoulders, others are channelling the acts’ outfits, together with Elizabeth and Katie from the UK, who’ve been impressed by Finland’s Windows95man.
Learn extra:
Ireland reaches Eurovision final for first time since 2018
Eurovision facing controversy over contestants and politics
Who will win this year’s show and the acts to look out for
Everything you need to know about this year’s show
Elizabeth and Katie from the UK
Round 100,000 guests from 89 international locations are anticipated in Malmo this week.
It’s a big enhance to a metropolis with round 360,000 residents and the police have spent months planning.
Sweden not taking any probabilities
Across the enviornment, officers are relaxed however seen.
Small teams stand collectively on corners, others peer down from the roofs above.
In opposition to a backdrop of two wars and the latest Moscow terror assault, Sweden will not be taking any probabilities.
It has drafted in officers from neighbouring Denmark and Norway to assist with safety.
Eurovision provides to attainable tensions
Sweden is already on terror alert stage 4 out of 5 after a string of Quran-burnings sparked outrage in Muslim communities final yr.
Eurovision has added to the attainable tensions with a number of protests deliberate in opposition to Israel being allowed to take part.
Tens of hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators are anticipated to collect forward of the second semi-final on Thursday the place 20-year-old Eden Golan will battle for her place in Saturday’s closing.
A smaller protest in help of Israel can also be deliberate, though some within the Jewish group mentioned they had been nervous it may turn into a goal.
‘We simply wish to benefit from the music’
One Eurovision fan mentioned that they had seen some protests however that they had been “actually peaceable”, whereas one other mentioned: “We simply wish to benefit from the music.”
One other mentioned: “I really feel dreadfully sorry for what is going on on in Gaza. I’ve monumental sympathy for [the] Israeli contestant as a result of they’re right here as a musician, not as a political act.
“This needs to be above politics. [It] needs to be about enjoyment and love for different individuals.”
Organisers unable to cease politics seeping in
The lyrics of the Israeli unique entry, October Rain, needed to be modified after they broke the foundations on political neutrality for obvious references to the 7 October Hamas assaults.
Regardless of requires a boycott, organisers dominated Israel may stay within the competitors with its reworked entry, Hurricane.
In the meantime, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) needed to put out a press release expressing “remorse” after former Swedish contestant Eric Saade, who’s reportedly of Palestinian origin, wore a keffiyeh tied round his wrist as he sang. The standard scarf has lengthy been a logo of help for Palestinian nationalism.
Whereas organisers are decided the occasion stays apolitical, they seem unable to cease politics from seeping in.