Which city will host Eurovision 2025 in Switzerland?

Saturday evening, Nemo won Eurovision 2024 with his song "The Code ». Immediately afterwards, the delegation received instructions to start organising Eurovision 2025 in Switzerland.

Here at Eurovision & Friends, we take a look at the towns and cities that are in with a chance of hosting the event and all the logistics involved!

What are the criteria for hosting Eurovision?

When choosing a host city, Eurovision organisers generally take several criteria into account. First and foremost capacity The host city must have a large concert hall with a capacity of at least 10,000 spectators and sufficient space for the media, rehearsals and other preparations. For the last few editions, the venues have been between 13,000 and 17,000 spectators.

Then theaccessibility: The city must be easily accessible by air, rail and road. A nearby international airport and a good public transport network are essential for welcoming delegations and visitors. Malmö, for example, was a twenty-minute drive from Copenhagen airport ✅

It goes without saying that the candidate city must have a experience in organising events A city with experience of hosting international events (concerts, conferences, sporting events) has the infrastructure and expertise to manage an event like Eurovision. Of course, you need to have aalle of adapted shows. It must offer excellent acoustics (open stadiums don't do the trick) and, above all, be available on the scheduled dates (although it is possible to reschedule shows that have already been programmed).

So which cities will host Eurovision 2025 in Switzerland?

Among the Swiss cities that meet these criteria, some stand out in particular. Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern top the list. We already know that Lausanne has indicated that it will not be applying, as it lacks hotel infrastructure. Let's take a look at the remaining cities.

Zurich

Zurich's largest concert hall is the HallenstadionIt has a capacity of 13,000. It is regularly used for concerts, sporting events and other large-scale events. The city has its own international airport, the largest in Switzerland, serving almost 2,000 destinations. There is no problem in terms of hotel capacity: the city has almost 16,200 rooms (2022 figures).

Geneva

Although Geneva is not the capital of Switzerland (Berne is), it is often referred to as the "diplomatic capital of the » world, as it is home to the headquarters of the United Nations and the Red Cross. It has two theatres. The Palexpo Arenalocated near Geneva international airport, can accommodate up to 16,000 people, and theGeneva arenabut with a more limited capacity of 9,500 places. According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the city will have around 10,600 rooms in 2022.

Basel

The largest hall in Basel is the St. Jakobshalle which can accommodate up to 12,400 spectators. The city has 11,000 bedrooms. It is served by Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg international airport, located in France (20 minutes away by car). The airport is served by more than 40 airlines and offers flights to over 80 destinations.

Bern

Switzerland's capital has a large concert hall, the PostFinance Arena. It can be adapted for concerts, with a capacity of around 17,000. Berne has an airport, but the one with the best international connections is Zurich, around 125 km away, or just over an hour by train. The city has around 6,000 hotel rooms.

So, which one are we betting on?

We can't really see Bern being selected. Its hotel capacity of 6,000 beds is less than that of Lausanne, which has already withdrawn from the list of potential candidates. What's more, its airport, almost an hour's drive away, doesn't seem to meet the organisers' criteria. Basel, perhaps. But having an airport in France with a border to cross for each delegation or fan travelling there could make the journey complicated. That would leave Zurich and Geneva.

Leaving aside the international airport, the last three cities to have hosted Eurovision (Turin, Liverpool and Malmö) had 12,700, 11,800 and 22,000 rooms respectively (including Malmö and Copenhagen). The halls, meanwhile, had a maximum configuration of 15,600, 17,000 and 13,000 seats.

It's hard to judge from the figures, they're so similar. Have the organisers also taken into account the artists who are already scheduled to perform? Have they asked Elton John, Imagine Dragons, Coldplay or Metallica to postpone their appearance? Eurovision is a logistical operation that takes place from early April to mid-May.

In Malmö, Zurich seemed to be the clear favourite among the Swiss fans on hand. The Organising Committee is due to announce its decision in September. This will give each city time to prepare its bid, fine-tune its assets and put forward the best bid for this exceptional event!

Updated on 19 July

 Eurovision 2025 will be held in Geneva or Basel! The steering committee selected these two cities from the shortlist, thus ruling out Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, which had also applied to host the event. We'll know who the host city will be at the end of August!