SVT in crisis meetings for Melodifestivalen, after the newly imposed restrictions!
Tens of thousands of spectators who have purchased tickets for the Melodifestivalen tour shows held in February and March of 2022 are in danger of losing the opportunity to watch their favourite artists perform live.
It has become clear since the Swedish government and the Public Health Organization, imposed new strict guidelines concerning the pandemic, due to the new coronavirus variant spreading across the community.
According to information from Aftonbladet , back-to-back crisis meetings of the editorial staff of SVT, took place on Wednesday .
Aftonbladet contacted Melodifestivalen project manager Anette Brattström via text message and she confirmed the crisis meetings at SVT:
We have just received the information on the new guidelines in place and this is of course a challenge for Melodifestivalen 2022. We are currently having internal discussions with all the involved parties, in order to find a solution.
Tickets for the concerts are almost sold out
SVT is responsible for the television broadcast of Melodifestivalen, but Live Nation is responsible for the tour concerts and ticket sales. As early as Monday, Live Nation sent an email to its customers informing them that tickets for the Melodifestivalen 2022 concerts were almost sold out.
The new imposed measures
However, the new restrictions may mean that up to half of the tickets sold may have to be cancelled. On Tuesday, the government announced that any public events involving more than 500 people would require both vaccination certificates and social distancing rules of at least one-meter in all directions, between each group of visitors. In a theatre or arena, this also means in practice that every other row, seats must remain empty to ensure the one-meter social distancing rule.
The 2022 tour to be held in the same cities as in 2014
In 2014, Melodifestivalen was held in the same cities as in 2022. At that time, a total of 59,200 seats were available for the concerts.
Assuming that Melodifestivalen 2022 expects to gather around the same number of people in the arena again, this means that around 30,000 ticket buyers may be left without a seat, next year. In addition, there are two rehearsals open to the public every week, on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. This could mean that another 10,000 spectators may not have a place to seat.
A source from the industry with good insight explains:
This is how things are. Some situations cannot be avoided. We hope, of course, that the government will take action and be able to remove the restrictions by next year, but when it comes to Melodifestivalen, it is not easy to take a chance. The question is whether you can be icy cold, at least for the final and keep hoping that the situation will have changed by then.
Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the developments related to the Swedish national selection for Eurovision 2022!
Source: Aftonbladet
