Newcastle faces competition from major cities across the UK in its bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest.
The city council has been working on preparing a bid, as revealed by ChronicleLive and the BBC earlier this month, in anticipation of the UK being chosen to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of 2022 winners, Ukraine.
Eurovision, the European Broadcast Union and BBC confirmed the UK will hold next year's contest. Now the focus turns to which city will be chosen.
Read more: Newcastle's Eurovision dream a step closer as UK chosen to host 2023 contest
"Next year’s host city will be chosen in the coming months following a bidding process to be launched this week," Eurovision said today.
Host cities must demonstrate they have a 10,000-seater venue, be close to an international airport and have enough hotel rooms for 2,000 delegates. There is interest across the UK, Eurovision says.
Which UK cities could host Eurovision?
According to Eurovision's press release, mayors, councillors and MPs representing several cities have expressed an interest. "Of course, not all of these locations will formally apply, and the BBC and the EBU will await official approaches and applications from this week onwards," it adds.
Cities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all thought to be interested.
The cities mentioned by Eurovision are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Swindon and Wolverhampton.
When will a Eurovision 2023 UK host city be chosen?
The formal application process for potential host cities begins this week, Eurovision says. Then a long list will be published "later in the Summer" before the winning city is chosen, likely later this year.
When is Eurovision 2023?
The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest is expected to be held in May 2023. Two semi-finals usually take place during the week, with the final on a Saturday.
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