High-tech stage, hovering Green Room, and other know-hows of Junior Eurovision 2018

Minsk will soon host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Preparations for international events like this are always a very serious thing. Installation works are in full swing in Minsk Arena that will host the event on 25 November. Minsk Arena will turn into “a solar system” the design of which was developed by Belarusian artist Galina Gomonova.

Green Room, Press Room, individual dressing rooms and a big common hall will be mantled by a star-studded sky, while the dome of the arena will be decorated by multi-tiered LED chandeliers. The big and small stages of the Junior Eurovision will be connected by a bridge, while long runways will radiate from the dancehall to the audience hall. The stage decoration conveys the idea behind this year’s contest, with its slogan and logo Light Up!

The organizers will use 16 cameras to broadcast the event, with the longest zooming interval of 5 seconds. “The matter should be approached very delicately. One needs to feel the music, tempo, and dynamics. Everything should be well-timed and planned to every second,” cameraman Konstantin Korniyenko said.

The Eurovision team is made up mostly of Belarusian specialists (8 years ago when the country hosted the event the team of the show featured only 12-15% of local specialists, while now the figure is 85-90%). The team features a director from Estonia who staged the Eurovision show in Ukraine. According to Konstantin Korniyenko, the Estonian director brought a “space technology” that has never been used in the country before.

Volunteers are also gearing up for the show: on 17 November they will welcome teams of the participating countries at the airport. On 19 November the Eurovision Week will kick off followed by rehearsals at Minsk Arena on 20 November.

Preparations for the show, new technical solutions and international team of the show in our report from the main stage of the Junior Eurovision 2018.