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Eurovision struggling amid talk of organisational “chaos”

Core organising group quit en masse after problems with Ukranian bosses.

With less than 3 months remaining, there are major concerns surrounding the logistics of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The European Broadcasting Union has reminded the Ukrainian host broadcaster to stick to a “speedy timeline” for the Eurovision Song Contest after 21 members of the organising committee resigned en masse earlier this month.

News reports describe the event as being in “chaos” with the core Ukrainian Eurovision team claiming they were “completely blocked” from making decisions about the show following the appointment of a new boss in December.

Concerns range over security and the organisation’s main site, Euroclub, PR, TV production, hotel service, catering, transport services.

In an open letter published by Strana, the committee said: “Hereby we, the Eurovision team, for whom this contest has become not only part of our work but also part of our life, officially inform that we are resigning and stopping work on preparations for the organisation of the contest.”

The EBU said in a statement:

Victoria Romanova, Oleksandr Kharebin, Iryna Asman, Denys Bloshchynski and his team and Oleksii Karaban informed the EBU on 10th February that they were resigning from their roles for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. The group felt they were not able to continue work on the project owing to staffing matters at (National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine), which the EBU cannot fully comment on.

The team have been instrumental in the planning for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, and we thank them for their hard work. We have reiterated to UA:PBC the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes, and that we stick to the timeline and milestones that have been established and approved by the Reference Group to ensure a successful Contest in May.

Further information regarding the core team of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will be released in due course.

Despite theses latest developments, the contest final is still expected to take place in Kiev on 13 May. Ticket sales last week remained strong.

SBS will announce Australia’s chosen act on March 7th.

Source: Independent, Eurovisionary

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