Eurovision finals in Malmö still a hot ticket

With tickets to the 2013 Eurovision finals in Malmö selling out in a flash last week, music fans across Europe have flooded resale sites at levels on par with the Euro 2012 football tournament.

• Malmö Eurovision final sells out in 20 minutes (26 Nov 12)
• Fans divided as Malmö to host Eurovision 2013 (9 Jul 12)
• Past Eurovision winners: where are they now? (31 May 12)

The contest is attracting fans from far and wide, according to London-based ticket resellers viagogo.

“The Eurovision Song Contest has brought out a competitive streak across Europe, which we haven’t seen since the 2012 Euros,” viagogo’s head of marketing Ed Parkinson said in a statement.

“We’re expecting to see further surges in demand from around Europe as each country confirms who they will be putting forward for the contest. Then we’ll see who is really backing their nation to win.”

According to viagogo, demand has soared the most in the countries that have previously done well in the Eurovision competition.

Site traffic so far shows that Germans may form the largest contingent of Eurovision fans in Malmö, perhaps in anticipation of repeating the 2010 success when Germany's Lena won with Satellite.

Fans from Finland, Russia and Norway, all Eurovision winners in the past decade, are also rushing to secure tickets for the final.

UK fans, however, will be giving the southern Swedish city a wide berth come May, most likely anticipating poor results as usual, according to viagogo.

Despite the growing Eurovision excitement, financial difficulties in some countries may make for a thinned-out field of competitors in Malmö.

Cyprus, Poland, Greece and Portugal have all said they will likely pull out, each citing financial difficulties.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou of Greece, which won the contest in 2005 with a performance by Swedish-born singer Elena Paparizou, told The Guardian it was "not likely" his country would participate.

Poland, meanwhile, said in a statement that following a "thorough analysis" it was making the "hard choice" to skip the contest in Malmö.

Martin Österdahl, executive producer for the Eurovision finals in Malmö, expressed his regret that some countries wouldn't be represented, telling the Aftonbladet newspaper it was "too bad" some nations couldn't afford to participate.

TT/The Local/og
Follow The Local on Twitter