Organising a trip to see the ESC means that the drama of Eurovision starts well before the first cape billows before a wind machine. It all begins with the ticketing.
As ESC is held in a different country each year (apart from that freakish triple winning streak by Ireland from 1992-1994) it is planned by a different team each year, so the number of tickets available, the configuration of seating, the timing of ticket sales, the process for purchasing and the types of credit card accepted all vary in random and unpredictable ways.
Tickets for ESC 2014 have already been released, with the first wave of public tickets going on sale 29 November 2013. For this year’s competition, tickets were then released in a further two waves, with those missing out on the tickets they wanted – such as those for the Grand Final night – able to nominate for a waiting list. But let’s face it, purchasing Grand Final tickets through the public allocation is harder than finding a straight guy in the ESC mosh pit.
So CJP and I decided to hold out and see whether we could gain a fan package. The fan packages are offered through the Eurovision Fan Clubs, or OGAE. They include tickets for both semi-finals and, best of all, those elusive Grand Final tickets. Again, the numbers on offer vary from year to year, as do the times at which they are offered for sale, so we were maintaining a close vigil for any breath of news about ticketing pretty much since we returned from the last Eurovision.
Finally we received confirmation that fan packages would be available. But would there be enough to go around?