Bristol City Council spent £70 on bid to host Eurovision next year
Bristol City Council spent just over £70 on its bid to host next year's Eurovision competition.
Mayor Marvin Rees led a campaign to see the annual singing competition come to Bristol, when it takes place in May 2023, but the city did not make the shortlist.
Now, a recent freedom of information request has revealed the city council spent £50 on making a video for the bid, and £20.42 on travel expenses. However, the video, which was made by an external videographer, was not used due to licensing issues.
The cost of £70.42 is much less than what some other cities have spent in their bids to host Eurovision. Aberdeen City Council committed to spend £30,000 of taxpayers’ money on their bid, but also ended up not making the shortlist of host cities.
But Bristol council previously faced questions about its ability to host the contest, as it said the competition would be held at the new YTL Arena under construction at the Brabazon Hangers in Filton.
This is despite the arena not being due to open until 2024 - a year after the contest.
A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “Working with key city partners like YTL Arena Bristol, we tabled a serious bid from our global city at a minimal cost to council tax payers.
"Ukrainians were at the heart of Bristol’s bid, and we continue to support them as a proud City of Sanctuary.”
Speaking since Bristol's bid was rejected, Rees said: “We’re disappointed but we continue to be ambitious for the city, and ambitions come with knock-backs. But it’s experience, and now we’ve been through it, we’re in a better position to pursue our ambitions with Bristol in the future.”
The seven cities that made the shortlist to host Eurovision next year are Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield, with a final decision due in autumn.
The UK will host the contest on behalf of this year’s winners Ukraine, due to the ongoing war there.
Credit: Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporter Service