Over 500,000 people attended Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) shows or related events in Basel last week, the organisers said on Monday, celebrating its "great success". + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox "These are the numbers we dreamed of. Our expectations have been fulfilled," Conradin Cramer, president of Basel's cantonal government, told reporters. Around 170 million people also watched the contest on TV. Over 100,000 people attended the ESC shows in the St. Jakobshalle and the Arena. And a similar number attended the opening ceremony and parade through Basel city centre on the Sunday before the start of the contest. A further 343,000 people attended the ESC events and public viewings at the exhibition centre and Barfüsserplatz, the organisers said. "We felt that the city of Basel was really involved right from the start," said Susanne Wille, director general of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), which broadcast the contest. Translated from ...
