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Entire Ukrainian Eurovision organising team quits

By | Published on Wednesday 15 February 2017

Eurovision Song Contest

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine has hit a number of snags lately, but yesterday it hit a major roadblock when the entire team organising the event resigned.

“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”, reads an open letter signed by the 21 members of the team. Among a number of reasons cited for the mass resignation is a “lack of transparency in making decisions regarding key areas of operations”.

In a statement, Eurovision overseer the European Broadcasting Union said: “The group felt they were not able to continue work on the project owing to staffing matters at [Ukrainian public broadcaster] UA:PBC, which the EBU cannot fully comment on”.

It continued: “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”.

Earlier this month, Eurovision tickets were not put on sale on 6 Feb as planned, due to a controversy over the chosen ticketing partner, Concert.ua. The postponement was apparently the result of protests from rival firms. Tickets for the show eventually went on sale yesterday, with Concert.ua still in place as the provider.

The final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is due to take place on 13 May.



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