Martin (9.55)
Not quite a bright and early start to the third day in Sweden’s third city – managed to leave my accreditation in the apartment, and the sunshine has turned to rain with threatening grey clouds hovering over the Central Station and EuroClub. Things should soon get brighter as soon the first coffee kicks in, though!

They’ve installed “proper” security outside the press area now, i.e. metal detectors, just like at the real press centre. This has caused a bit of disruption among the kind of fans who like to complain about being disrupted, but hey, what can you do?

Didn’t do anything last night, despite the available nightlife options – the fortnight is still young and burnout is always on the horizon, so we just chilled in the apartment, sipped on a beer or two and watched some old Euro-classics for a bit of mood-setting. Nerds on tour!

Danny (13.55)
Unlike Martin, I DID go out last night, we went back to EuroFan Cafe where there was a lovely little event of a “talk show” with Birgit from Estonia and Roberto from Belgium where they were interviewed seperately by Rick, the organiser of the Fan Cafe. We were also treated to a live performance of their songs.

Birgit especially is lovely, and she took the time afterwards to chat to the fans, and she even gave me a signed copy of her CD! We also spent time chatting to the writer of her song and her backing singers – all in all they are a lovely delegation!

Afterwards, there was more Eurovision-oke, and it didn’t take too much convincing for me to perform again, this time I did my very best (or should that be worst?) impression of Krista from Finland, complete with a veil kindly loaned by Kristjan fromAfterwards, we decided to check out EuroClub and stayed there until we were chucked out – this seems to becoming a habit! We saw Hannah from Slovenia there having fun, but overall it was quite quiet, things are still warming up it seems.

This evening our friend DJ Ohrmeister is DJing at EuroClub, so I think we’ll pop along to see what’s happening there!

Martin (15:25)
Part of the point of these blogs is to judge the extent to which “Eurovision fever” has hit the city. The answer so far is “not hugely”, though not in a bad way. The kids on the block where we’re staying are certainly perplexed by my presence, and while I was waiting for a friend to arrive at Triangeln station this lunchtime, the accreditation badge around my neck attracted some curious glances from local passers-by. Maybe they were trying to work out which entry I’d written. More likely they were curious as to why a member of the press should happen to be at neither Slagthuset nor the arena, but instead sitting on a rock outside a suburban train station stuffing his face with an SEK 15 falafel sandwich. (Very good, by the way. One of the many benefits of staying in a diverse urban neighbourhood!)

In terms of more concrete evidence of “ESC fever”, the local free newspapers, “what’s on” magazines and tourist guides are obviously full of Eurovision-related stuff, and there’s a vast array of related things happening – the local churches are even getting on board with Eurovision-themed services, drag queens and all! Only in Scandinavia, eh?

Martin (20:00)
An unexpected pleasure this (early) evening – the Irish party at Fagans bar in the Old Town. It was a fairly informal affair, with plenty of singing and dancing and drinking, although there was some lovely sit-down food too:

It got busier than this, but the Moldovan delegation can be seen in the background. They were later followed by Montenegro and Slovenia – Hannah spent most of the time chilling outside on the patio with the rest of her delegation, though!

Now it’s time to rest up before an evening session at EuroClub (the actual club, not the cinema bit – we assume!) with the legendary DJ Ohrmeister.

This post will be updated throughout the day, so stay tuned!