Bulgarian government to set up interdepartmental organising committee for hosting Eurovision 2027
The Bulgarian government is setting up an interdepartmental organising committee for the country’s hosting of the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, Prime Minister Roumen Radev said at a regular meeting of the Cabinet on May 20.
This follows Bulgaria’s Dara’s winning of the song contest in Vienna on May 16.
Radev said that the interdepartmental committee will include all relevant ministers and will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov.
The Prime Minister said that this week, Dara, her team and the management of Bulgarian National Television (BNT) will be invited to the Cabinet office to coordinate the preparation of hosting the song contest in Bulgaria next year.
On May 18, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Gulub Donev said that funds would be allocated in the draft Budget for 2027 for hosting Eurovision. Donev did not state an estimate of what the funding would be.
There has as yet been no announcement of the government allocating funding in 2026 for spending this year on preparing to host Eurovision.
Eurovision is a non-profit event, and financing is typically achieved through a fee from each participating broadcaster, contributions from the host broadcaster and the host city, and commercial revenues from sponsorships, ticket sales, televoting, and merchandise.
Going by media reports, budgeting and spending on hosting Eurovision in recent years have varied considerably.
Those which have spent the largest sums include Azerbaijan on the event in Baku in 2012, about 60 million euro, Malmo in Sweden in 2014 is said to have cost 44.8 million euro and Kyiv in Ukraine in 2017, about 37 million euro.
In 2021, spending on hosting in Rotterdam is reported to have cost 19 million euro, and in 2022, spending on the hosting in Turin is said to have cost about 33.5 million euro.
An example of the division of costs: In 2025, the budget for Basel was 62 million euro, with 40 million euro coming from the canton of Basel – Stadt and the remainder from the public broadcaster, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and sponsors.
This is Bulgaria’s first win in the 70-year-old competition. The country first took part in 2005 and returned to the competition in 2026 after three years away.
EBU rules are that the contest is traditionally hosted by the public service broadcaster of the winning country, but this is subject to confirmation by the EBU.
If the winner is unable to host the next edition, the EBU may designate another participating public service broadcaster to host.
Since Dara’s victory in the 2026 contest, the mayors of the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, Bourgas, Plovdiv and Varna each have expressed eagerness to host the song contest.
A host city must meet several criteria, including having a venue able to accommodate at least 10 000 spectators, a media centre for 1500 journalists, a Euro Village fan zone, sufficient height for the stage, lighting and equipment, space for changing rooms and commentators’ booths, sponsor spaces, and it must be covered and air-conditioned.
The host venue must be in easy reach of an international airport and there must be hotel accommodation for at least 2000 delegates, journalists and spectators. This is while fans who travel to attend the song contest far exceed that number.
