Turin welcomes Eurovision 2022! Follow the Turquoise Carpet and Opening Ceremony today

Italy and Turin are ready to welcome the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest! So everything is prepared to inaugurate the great week of Eurovision 2022. All the activities and events that will surround the contest will start this afternoon at 16:00 CEST with the Opening Ceremony where all the participants will show their best outfits for the occasion and will answer the questions of European media.

The Venaria Reale is already decked out to welcome the world’s most spectacular musical event, where the 200-metre-long turquoise carpet has been laid for the participants. Built in 1675, the Royal Palace of Venaria is one of the symbols of the city of Turin due to its beautiful architecture, magnificent gardens and historical past as one of the residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Moreover, in 1997 was designated as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The 40 representatives of the participating countries, together with members from their respectives delegations, will parade down the turquoise carpet until they reach the Galleria Grande of the Reggia, where they will be welcomed by the Mayor of the City of Turin, Stefano Lorusso, the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Österdahl, and the executive producers of this year’s contest, Simona Martorelli and Claudio Fasulo, representatives from the host broadcaster Rai. 

Today’s special opening evening will be hosted by Gabriele Corsi, Mario Acampa and Carolina Di Domenico, who are also in charge of hosting the various press conferences taking place these days. Gabriele and Mario will also sound familiar to you after having hosted the semi-final allocation draw in January. Mario is also the face of Junior Eurovision in Italy, as commentator of the contest and host of programmes related to the Eurovision’s little brother.

Running order of the Turquoise Carpet

This will be the order of appearance of each participant on the turquoise carpet, with the Albanian delegation opening the parade with Ronela Hajati and the Italian host country closing the parade with Mahmood and BLANCO:

Why turquoise carpet instead of red carpet?

Since 2018 in the contest held in Lisbon, the carpet is no longer red and changes its colour to a different one giving a personal touch to every edition. That year it was blue, in reference to the water and oceanic style that characterised the slogan and visual identity of 2018 edition.

And since 2019, the colour of the carpet is being determined by the main official partner of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is once again the specialised hair products brand Moroccanoil for a second time in a row, preserving the turquoise colour that was also used last year in Rotterdam. In the 2019 edition it was orange, representing the colour of the visual identity of the Israeli genealogical company MyHeritage, sponsors of that year.

The 66th Eurovision Song Contest kicks off!

The opening ceremony marks the start of a busy week in Turin which will be packed with activities for Eurofans at the Eurovillage, as well as Euroclub parties and live shows. The Eurovillage will be open daily from 17:00 to 20:30 (Italian local time) until 14 May and will be located in “Parco del Valentino”. It will bring together the participants of the event, local artists and exhibitions in which visitors can participate. All these activities are organised by the “Fondazione per la Cultura Torino”.

Turin awaits you! Do not forget that you will be able to follow the Eurovision 2022 Opening Ceremony live this afternoon, starting at 16:00 CEST both through the ESCPlus multi-window system or from the contest’s official YouTube channel.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE CONTEST? DOWNLOAD OUR HANDBOOK

Remember that you can get your copy of the ESCplus Eurovision 2022 Handbook, which includes biographies, lyrics and voting sheets, by clicking below: