"Eurovision 2027": what Bulgaria must cover to become the host

Following Dara's victory, Bulgaria officially takes up the baton and will host "Eurovision" in 2027. The four largest cities in our country – Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas – have already publicly declared their ambition to host the contest. Although the decision is formally made by BNT, it must also be approved by the European Broadcasting Union, which is the official organizer of "Eurovision".

The requirements for the host city are clearly spelled out. The venue must be air-conditioned and have a capacity of between 7,000 and 10,000 spectators after the construction of the stage and all related structures. In other words, we are talking about the actual available seats after the installation of the stage, cameras, equipment, and areas for delegations.

11 years ago, Bulgaria already hosted the Junior "Eurovision". At that time, Europe and the world had the opportunity to see our country through the show organized at the "Arena 8888 Sofia" hall.

For comparison, the "Wiener Stadthalle" in Vienna – a venue that has hosted "Eurovision" – has a capacity of 10,741 seats, while the Bulgarian arena holds 12,373 spectators. It turns out, however, that just the numbers in the hall are not enough.

Last year, the public media ORF in Austria set additional requirements for candidate cities: not only to have an equipped hall with at least 10,000 seats, but also for it to be available for a period of eight weeks, to have good air connectivity – enough flights abroad – and a serious hotel base to accommodate delegations, fans, and media.

Less than 48 hours after Dara's victory, Varna was the first to come out with an official desire to host. "Furthermore, Varna is a maritime capital. It has exceptional connectivity, it has a large bed capacity. We also have a hall where this could potentially happen, but these are criteria that we have yet to examine," declared the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev.

The Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna has about 6,000 seats, and the mayor is convening the local tourism council to analyze whether the city can meet all the requirements. Burgas also announced that it wants to host "Eurovision". There, the sports hall has about 1,000 more seats, and for events with standing room, the capacity can reach up to 15,000 people.

"Burgas Municipality has very good experience in hosting large sports, cultural, and all kinds of events; I can say that my team is well prepared. This is by no means a battle between the cities of Bulgaria! It is important for us that Bulgaria presents itself in the best possible way," emphasized the mayor of Burgas, Dimitar Nikolov.

In Plovdiv, the "Kolodruma" hall offers about 6,000 seats, but the local authorities do not exclude the option for reconstruction and expansion. "We are the city with the most packed cultural calendar. We are the ones who increase the funds we spend on culture by 10% every year. We are the city that showed it can have 12 events with different stages," declared the mayor of Plovdiv, Kostadin Dimitrov.

Regardless of which city wins the bid, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has already announced that he is convening the relevant ministers to determine what budget will be necessary for the preparation. The Minister of Finance also signaled his support.

"Let it be clear that the Minister of Finance is also very happy about Dara's success. There will be one more item in the 2027 budget – 'Eurovision' 2027," declared the Minister of Finance, Galab Donev.

While we are counting seats and comparing capacities, the example from abroad shows that with enough political will, bolder solutions are also possible. When Azerbaijan won the contest in 2011, the country managed to build the "Baku Crystal Hall" – a huge hall for "Eurovision" – in less than nine months.