APRIL 29

Hello ljubitelji glasbe!

Another day in paradise! As you might know, we have engaged students studying song and dance at the Helenholms Gymnasium here in Malmö for our stand in rehearsals. The idea origins from the 2010 Eurovision Production in Norway, and just as back then, we are SHOCKED over how talented these students are.

Here’s our view every morning as we leave the hotel. This is actually a legal grafitti wall. The only downside is the guys sniffing paint all day.

As the show gets closer, the city will get more and more butterflies. Here’s our shuttle bus all pimped out. I wish I could show you the alternative butterfly movie that Peppe and his team have done, but I’m afraid SVT would shoot me if I did…… And we can’t have that! I’m a bit too busy to die at the moment…………

Aha! The trading has begun! The first gift from Highlight has arrived, as a compensation for the 20 meters of black molton I have that they need for their exposures in public areas…….. Bring it on Jan!

Dummy rehearsals for the songs started today! We’re doing what we did in Norway in 2010, where we have a local dramatic arts school use Eurovision as a semester project. We have the Heleneholms Gymnasium with us here in Malmö. The students learn the songs, dances and different languages for all 39 countries. It makes the rehearsals so much more interesting and give all departments a better feel for how the lighting, video, cameras, etc will be when the artists arrive in a few days. And these kids are talented!

This way, we can do full artist rehearsals a week prior to the artist actually showing up in Malmö! We tape the final run through of each song, and send it to the Head of Delegation of each country, and they can come back to us with remarks on camera, video content, lighting and program sound earlier than ever before.

One of many things you can do with 800 Clay Pakys………………. 🙂

The arcs were the last problem we solved, and we did it less than 2 weeks prior to load in. The set designers original idea was to fill these with LED panels such as Olite or something else, but we were convinced that it would not work, since it wouldn’t be bright enough. Rescue came from our old friends at Company NA in Riga, Latvia, and their amazing Solaris Flare strobe, that does SO much more than just strobe, and is as bright as the sun actually!

And then, sometimes, something very wrong appears on the screen……….

Joan thinks it looks more like Martin Short than me, and I think I’ll go to Seven Eleven and buy myself a gun, and walk out to FOH. The only problem with that plan is that I’m not in Texas at the moment……………

Peter Lind stopped by to discuss load out with Berra today. They are about to realize that the 100+ trailers that arrived and got unloaded during a 2 week span all will come back to be loaded within a 36 hour span…………..

Have a great day!! 🙂

Joan