Tens of thousands of EU flags will be handed out to audience members at this weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest final.
Anti-Brexit group ThankEuforetheMusic has confirmed they will be dishing out 75,000 EU flags for the event at the M&S Bank Arena, with flags to be distributed widely across the city as fans prepare to party.
Spectators have been full of praise for Liverpool – which saw a huge Remain vote in the EU referendum in 2016 – as they descended on the city for a week’s worth of events.
Flags, sequins and Eurovision-themed costumes were all on show as crowds arrived for the semi-finals.
Urs Odermatt, 57, from Lucerne, Switzerland, and his friends, who all wore red Swiss-themed suits, said Liverpool was “the best” after travelling to many different countries to watch the competition.
Asked what made it so good, he said: “The pubs, the people, the prices, the beers and the weather.
“We’re happy.”
The final is being hosted by Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine and will be shown on the BBC and other TV networks with millions of people in the UK and across the globe expected to tune in for the hugely popular event.
Liverpool for Europe hopes to capitalise on the large audience by replicating the scenes witnessed at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2019, when activists waved EU flags and some donned blue berets.
“On Saturday, when the audience will be at its biggest, we are going to get as many flags inside as possible,” one activist told The Daily Mail.
“Liverpool is an anti-Brexit city, and we want that message to come across.”
Eurovision rules state that small flags can be taken into the Liverpool Arena.
Corr: An earlier version of this article suggested that it was Liverpool for Europe handing out EU flags. This has been corrected to ThankEuforetheMusic.
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