Liverpool seek artists for festival alongside Eurovision

A call out has been made for creatives to take part in a cultural festival, which is to be held alongside Eurovision in Liverpool next year.

• READ MORE: Sam Ryder on his debut album and life after Eurovision: “Who knows what will happen next?”

As per the BBC, Culture Liverpool stated that the planned event would celebrate UK music, Eurovision and modern Ukraine.

They added that they were welcoming applications from creatives who live in the nations competing in Eurovision 2023, particularly artists from Ukraine and Liverpool.

Last month, Liverpool was announced as the host city for Eurovision 2023, beating Glasgow to stage the contest on behalf of Ukraine, who organisers deemed unable to host the event due to their ongoing war with Russia.

Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson, said: “Liverpool’s track record of curating innovative, high-quality artistic events combined with our ambition and determination to pay tribute to our Ukrainian friends stood out to the judges.”

#Opportunity | Artists, creatives + dreamers, this is #Liverpool calling! Do you want to be involved in #Eurovision2023? Then check out the current commissioning opportunities. Be quick, expressions of interest are needed by Mon 12 Dec 2022.

More info: https://t.co/nrk8KsKLcI pic.twitter.com/mujsLwtIax

— Culture Liverpool (@CultureLPool) November 23, 2022

She added: “Launching the culture commissions call-out is a huge milestone in our planning process,” also noting that Liverpool “thrives on creativity and is willing to push boundaries, so we are excited to unleash the potential of artists from across the world”.

The deadline of December 12 has been set for expressions of interest, with successful applicants in the first stage given an initial £2,000 of funding to develop their proposal.

In other news, the Eurovision Song Contest has announced major voting changes for 2023. Next year’s event will see professional juries scrapped from the semi-finals, meaning that viewers alone will choose who qualifies for the grand final rather than a mix of jury and viewers.

Although the people’s votes will count in the semis, the professional juries will return to contribute to the grand final.

Countries that are not competing in the contest will also be allowed to cast votes for the first time in the semis and the final and will essentially count as votes from one country – in this case, Rest of World.

Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena will play host to Eurovision 2023, which is taking place on May 13. It is the ninth time the UK has hosted the annual singing competition, having last hosted in Birmingham in 1998.