Denmark Hosts Eurovision in a 38,000-Seat Football Stadium

MAY 15 2001 · 12:10

DR / Parken Stadium · "N/A" · Denmark · 2001 Language: N/A · Venue: Parken Stadium · Host: Copenhagen, Denmark · Type: deep cut · Broadcast: digital hd Denmark, fresh off the Olsen Brothers' 2000 win, decides to host Eurovision at Parken — Copenhagen's FC København football stadium, open to the sky, capacity 38,000. It is the largest audience in Eurovision history. Open-air Eurovision introduces weather risk; fortunately the 12 May 2001 evening is cold but dry. Tanel Padar & Dave Benton win for Estonia with 'Everybody'. Context DR's decision to use Parken was a calculated gamble — open-air production had never been attempted at Eurovision. Infrastructure included enormous sound systems, weather-contingency staging, and multi-camera helicopter coverage. Danish state tourism reportedly spent millions promoting Copenhagen around the event. Legacy The 2001 Parken Eurovision remains the only stadium-sized Eurovision in the contest's history. Subsequent contests have always returned to indoor arenas. The Parken year is now frequently cited in Eurovision production-history discussions as the high-water mark of pure-audience-scale hosting. Estonia's win made the Baltic states' 2001-2003 Eurovision dominance explicit.