Nottingham Castle will reopen for a special screening of the Eurovision song contest in May. The Castle will become a Eurovision live site on Saturday 13 May to broadcast the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.
Nottingham has been announced as an official BBC broadcast partner for the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final, with the event being streamed live from Liverpool Arena on a giant screen measuring 28m squared, with a concert-quality sound system.
Our city is one of several confirmed to host an official Eurovision screening, allowing up to 30,000 people to participate in Eurovision celebrations across the country. The screening has been made possible thanks to funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Nigel Hawkins, Head of Culture & Libraries at Nottingham City Council, said: “It is very exciting that Nottingham is one of the UK cities hosting an official Eurovision screening. The castle grounds will be a great venue for the celebrations, and we’re delighted that we can open the gates for this event before fully re-opening the castle to the public in June.”
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The Eurovision event will follow the live screenings of the Coronation and Coronation Concert on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May, and comes ahead of the castle fully re-opening in June.
Eurovision fans will be able to bring picnics and blankets to watch the Grand Final in the beautiful surroundings of the castle grounds. The castle’s visitor centre will also be open selling food and drink.
Due to limited capacity in the castle grounds, people will need to pre-book for the screening and tickets will cost £1 each. This small nominal charge will cover the booking process costs (inclusive of VAT and booking fees).
Tickets will go on sale at 10am on Friday 14 April and can be booked via the What’s On Nottingham website.
Nottingham Castle was closed to visitors on November 21, 2022 after the Nottingham Castle Trust went into liquidation. The world class heritage site has been closed to visitors since this announcement, a little over a year since it re-opened following a £33 million renovation over three years.
The site had been run since 1878 by Nottingham City Council until 2018, when it closed for a £31 million transformation. Control was then handed over to the Nottingham Castle Trust in May 2019, with the venue reopening in the summer of 2021.
After just over a year of operation, with issues including an alleged racist incident and complaints over ticket prices, the Trust went into liquidation last November. Nottingham City Council has been working since then on a plan for the future of the site and has decided to run it itself again for now.
It was recently confirmed the site will reopen in June, following some preview events in May.
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