Viber Copenhagen

From grime to glitz: Eurovision jumps on industrial bandwagon

The choice of a former ship building wharf as the setting for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest was a calculated gamble by the show’s producers It might not look like much now, but come next May, Refshaleølen will be the host of the splashiest, cheesiest show in Europe.

The tallest of the two former shipbuilding hangars towers 75 metres above an industrial wasteland on the northerly tip of Refshaleøen. Long grass sprouts from between cracks in the concrete and rubbish drifts about aimlessly in the breeze. The site is the unconventional choice for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest that Denmark will host May 6-10 thanks to a bare-footed Emilie de Forest sweeping to victory in this year’s competition in Malmö.