THE CITY OF BOLOGNA SENT IN TO RAI THEIR INTEREST TO HOST EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2022: THE CITY MEETS ALL THE REQUIREMENTS TO THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT, WATCHED BY MORE THAN 200 MILLION VIEWERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD.
Bologna’s bid will be presented by a team led by FREE EVENT, international event agency that in their 14 years of activity has cooperated with many Italian excellences and leader brands in the region. This time, they will coordinate an highly skilled team which includes creatives, directors, designers and authors with outstanding international experience.
The city of Bologna launches their bid to be the host city of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 that, due to the Måneskin victory in Rotterdam 2021, will take place in Italy. The Mayor Virginio Merola has signed the Espression of Interest of the city that has been emailed to Rai on Monday July 12th.
Soon after Italy’s triumph, the City of Bologna and Emilia-Romagna region put together a working team and started working on the bid. The Tourism Regional Company APT Servizi and the Hospitality City Agency Bologna Welcome are working together with FREE EVENT ENTERTAINMENT & PRODUCTION. FREE EVENT leads an highly skilled team which includes creatives, directors, designers and authors with outstanding international experience.
Andrea Camporesi, FREE EVENT founder and, affirmed:
«I wanted to put together a sort of Dream Team, professionals from the show business with solid skills in the fuekd international event, such as John Dennis Mc Cullagh, production consultant; Cristian Biondani, tv multicamera director; Eddy Anselmi, journalist, since 2012 Assistant Head of Delegation of Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest; Emiliano Bitti, technical director tecnico, specialised in large capacity event, in grandi eventi; and the architectural and design firm Giò Forma, active in international sproduction and stage design.
The Emilia-Romagna region is pointing out to the whole country their best Government practices which guaranteed to be the driving force of Italy in terms of economic grows, by demonstrating that the right commitment make things work, all right if they work.
With this bid, we don’t think only to the present: instead, we will try to precisely shape to the kind of future we would like to build the future that we want. In our vision, hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Bologn will mean to create a new reference, a new example and a new successul case history, in a territory that has got the infrastructures and the know-how for hosting international projects and that since ever has been sinonymous with culture, art and hospitality.
I have another dream: I plan to pay tribute, in front of the largest possible audience, to the late Raffaella Carrà, the italian and international artist – born in Bologna, raised in Romagna – that since the Sixties, just like Eurovision Song Contest, understood the potential of an interdisciplinary show mode, made of music, words, dance, lights and colours».
In order to host an event like Eurovision Song Contest the basic requisite is a venue that matches the capacity, technical and engineering state-of-art requiments and needs. FREE EVENT and their team are currently consider not just one possibility but two alternatives: the Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno, just off the city boundaries, and the Bologna Trade Fair Center. Both alternatives could fit all the needs of the Eurovision Song Contest. Unipol Arena area is currently under renovation. The workd will be completed in December 2021, and could even be adjusted to be tailored for the Eurovision Song Contest needs.
According to the Bologna Mayor Virginio Merola:
«Bologna, since 2006 recognised by UNESCO among their Creative City of Music, has the ambition and all the features to host the next Eurovision Song Contest. The city has an extra gear: the ability to work as a team to bring home a so important result. We have started to plan since the day after the Måneskin victory in Rotterdam, and we are ready to give to Rai and EBU all the information they will ask for. Bologna is a city with solid roots in Europe, and we have an historical liaison with music of all genres: classical, opera, rock and pop. Hosting an so important event will be an honour for all of us, and I feel sure that my fellow Bolognese will welcome delegation, crew, press and fans with the enthusiasm they are famous for all around the world»
Having won the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam means the return to Italy of the most viewed non sport tv programme all around the world, which guarantees an almost 200 million viewers, and a series of satellite activities on the territory that could mean around thirty thousand fans and delegate for the Eurovision Song Contest weeks. For an event of such size, the costs may be relevant, but the return to the community is priceless, involving not only the host city, but the Regional area and eventually the whole Country.
It’s time to run. The first appontment to restart our race can start from Bologna, Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Host City. Only one of the sustainable and repeatable projects, under both an environmental and economic perspective, that will involved the area excellences, from art districts to the so-called Motor Valley, from engineering to the health and safety sector, from the well known food tradition to the Hospitality sector.
Bologna would like to reaffirm itself as a welcoming and inclusive community, and the spirit of the Eurovision Song Contest perfectly matches our values and principles. In 1259 Bologna, with their Liber Paradisus act, has been among the first European city to redeem the freedom of the serfs. In 1982, Bologna has been the first italian city to grant a public space in concession to the LGBT+ community. e
The business model that Bologna and Emilia-Romagna have in mind for their Eurovision Song Contest sees the host broadcaster not organising directly the event, but merely coordinates and overviews tohether with local authorities all the promotional side events and structures (Press centre, Delegation Bubble, Euroclub, Eurolounge, Opening Ceremony and Semifinal Allocation Draw, Eurovision Village etc.). Therefore, the Host Broadcaster will be able to focus on their own core business: the production of a number of tv shows. The Eurovision Song Contest itself will be the main one, and Rai will be free to use their resources and on air time to promotional shows and collateral productions aimed to their main target: the italian viewer.
The city of Bologna and the Region Emilia-Romagna aim is to build a new best practice model of co-operation between public broadcasting service, private companies and territorial agencies. A sustainable model that will develops a sentiment of trust towards our whole Country. We don’t want to host the only italian Eurovision Song Contest of the next thirty years: we want to inaugurate a tradition made of a series of further victories and hosted edition, creating opportunities and building know-how that will benefit, in the next future, other cities and regions as well.
Bologna and its region
In the latest years, Emilia-Romagna hosted great rock events such as Modena Park, Campovolo, Heineken Jammin’Festival and several editions of MTV Days.
The City of Bologna – where the first European university has been founded in 1088, and Emilia-Romagna region have an inestimable cultural and musical heritage. We may name a worldwide famous scholar like the late Umberto Eco, whose novels and studies were translated in every language. In the musical fields, the Emilia-Romagna scene present a countless series of records. The radio transmission – with Guglielmo Marconi – was invented in the Bologna outskirts, the classical music see glories of the past like the composer Giuseppe Verdi, the singer Luciano Pavarotti, the late Maestro Claudio Abbado and maestro Riccardo Muti. In the pop music scene, Emilia-Romagna is the birthplace of Golden Globe Winner and Academy Award nominee, the international star Laura Pausini, if we look to dance and EDM music, we can name the Grammy Award winner deejay and Coachella head Benny Benassi. In the history of Eurovision we have more than participant from Bologna and Emilia-Romagna. The first of them has been Gianni Morandi in 1970, with Occhi di Ragazza, penned by the late Lucio Dalla. Since 60 years, Bologna has been the city of Zecchino d’oro, the international children song contest.
The Italian PM Mr Mario Draghi chose Emilia-Romagna for his first italian official visit. Here will be established the European Weather Centre, that will see 1,500 researchers and employees, with the set up of the supercompute Leonardo, whose computational power will be the first in the European Union and in the World Top 10. The italian «Data Valley», set in Emilia-Romagna will eventually make Italy and Europe able to be competitive in this field with the US and China.
Only in the latest year, Emilia-Romagna hosted more international events than any other italian region. Two Formula 1 Grand Prix, Three Moto GP and superbike events, the Cycling World Championship and some stages of Giro d’Italia. The region is investing on the already competitive infrastructure, to make faster and more effective our connection with the rest of Europe. The Motor Valley Region, with international prestige brands such ad Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Ducati, is less than on hour from Bologna downtown.
