SWEDEN – It is no secret that Sweden failed to protect its citizens from the pandemic crisis unlike other countries such as Greece. Despite the lifting of most protection sanctions in most European countries, the situation in Sweden is still looking bad and this could affect mass events as well.
One of them is Melodifestivalen. The annual music festival the winner of which traditionally gets the ticket to represent the country in Eurovision has a very broad format which at the moment looks impossible to be implemented.
It is impossible for SVT to have six cities hosting the event and having a mass audience in the arenas. Therefore SVT is examining scenarios to maintain the show and its prestige, although we all know how things work there.
The first scenario according to POPMUSIK website is for SVT to host all six shows (semi-finals and the final) in a studio and make it a total televised event. After all, this is what counts for SVT, to have massive TV ratings (a goal that can be easily achieved under this scenario, not to mention they can break a record).
The other scenario is considering the option of one city and one arena hosting the six shows with limited and in-distance audience attendance, or even maybe televised semi-finals and a small audience event in a small arena.
No matter what (and between us, not only for Melodifestivalen) it seems that we have to forget the events as we used to know them. At least until a working vaccine for COVID-19 is released in the market.
