Apparently Bulgaria are out after all, so we could just end up with 40 again, a straight swap of Portugal with Ukraine. I assume Jon Ola was jumping ahead when he said "41 so far", unless we have a surprise return. Maybe Bosnia & Herzegovina finally found some funding?

 

Well it turns out it was Bosnia after all! However Bulgaria have backtracked today with someone at their broadcaster saying a 2016 return is not ruled out, and their official twitter account teasing that Kaliopi may not be the only returning artist. This links with all the previous rumours that if Bulgaria were to enter, then Poli Genova would be their representative - something which she basically gave away in this interview.

 

 

I'd love Bulgaria to come back as I adore Poli and I loved Na Inat! :heart:

It's interesting you mention that because if I'm not mistaken he's since said that the number of 41 has now been exceeded, which leads me to believe Bulgaria are back.

 

Plus, Junior apparently got huge ratings the other week so you'd hope they want to build on the momentum they have behind them.

Indeed, and Poli got a lot of internet hype (by Junior Eurovision standards) after this Melodifestivalen-esque interval act!

 

We should know by the end of tomorrow if Bulgaria are indeed returning, but it's looking likely :D

Do I try and get tickets in the morning, or do I wait until the next lot of tickets are released?

 

I'm having to go back to my old office this morning to do a handover to my backfill so I'll be on my laptop waiting for the tickets lol.

43 participants confirmed by Eurovision.tv!!

 

Fantastic to see Bulgaria and Croatia back as well then, I just hope Portugal are pleased with themselves at preventing a record-breaking contest! :kink:

Anyone else in the waiting room?

I was but the website isn't very good, its let me pick tickets and it keeps crashing and kicking me out :(

Finally managed to get tickets for the Semi final 2 on Thursday so am pleased about that. We did try other tickets but had no luck, the AWS site kept crashing sadly but at least we got tickets. Next stop getting accommodation (apparently there's not a lot about and the ones that are available are quite expensive?). Does anyone have any tips or where the best sites to look at?

I want to kill that system.

 

I had final tickets but it wouldn't process the payment and froze before at that last stage.

 

In the end I managed to get a nose bleed seat for SF1, a decent seat for SF2 and a decent seat for the Jury Final. I'm rather excited.

Now that it's been confirmed BBC Three is going, where will the semis be now broadcast? The semi we vote in according to EBU rules has to be shown on linear telly so it can't be just online.

At the very least the semi we have to vote in will be on BBC Two/Four and the other one will be shown via online/red button (France/Spain certainly used to do this, not sure if it's still like that). It should be easy enough to shunt whatever would be on BBC Two on a Tuesday/Thursday night to another day or time so I'm not to concerned.

Didn't manage to get tickets today, will try again when the next batch are released, if not getting drunk in a bar or pub that is showing it, if anyone wants to join, me and my friend will be in Stockholm for the 2nd semi and for the final. Even if don't manage to get into the arena, I am really excited to be in Stockholm whilst this is happening.

Now that it's been confirmed BBC Three is going, where will the semis be now broadcast? The semi we vote in according to EBU rules has to be shown on linear telly so it can't be just online.

 

At the very least the semi we have to vote in will be on BBC Two/Four and the other one will be shown via online/red button (France/Spain certainly used to do this, not sure if it's still like that). It should be easy enough to shunt whatever would be on BBC Two on a Tuesday/Thursday night to another day or time so I'm not to concerned.

 

Someone on my Twitter feed appears to have already inquired

 

Just had an email response from the BBC regarding the semi finals - BBC One or BBC Two will 'most likely' broadcast the shows

 

Don't want false hope because they'll go with BBC Two in the end but the fact BBC One was even suggested ;O

So I managed to buy two tickets for the Family Final! I was going to go for the Jury one but that was a little more expensive, and I have like no money on me right now :P Checking again now both of those have also sold out tonight, as has the second semi final broadcast.

 

What's the Family Final like, is it worth the trip up to Stockholm? I've somehow got to work out how to get there from Australia but I can worry about that in a few months, for now I've reserved (for free) a cheap hostel in the city centre while they're (just) still available. While it's not quite the real show, I'll still get to be in the stadium watching all the acts, and it'll mark 20 years since I watched my first Eurovision during Gina G mania in 1996!

Edited November 27, 20159 yr by BillyH

The word is now that Slovakia have asked for an extended deadline to 18th December in order to amass funds, which is an odd thing to do if you don't want to enter the contest.

 

Perhaps we are on to a record breaker after all :o (although I'm not getting my hopes up here).

I saw that on ESC Nation but I'm not convinced one little bit it's a reliable source, rather an eager fan trying get people's hopes up of breaking the record.

 

If Slovakia has shown even a little bit of interest I doubt the EBU would've announced the participant list so early - it wasn't revealed until January for 2015.

Is it true there's gonna be another batch of tickets? If so does anyone know when they are due to come out?

Apparently so. There was no standing tickets available at all and I was on there the moment they went on sale. So I imagine they'll be sellin them at some point