
And so the end was here...
I suspect that this is a common sight for those fans whose nation hosts Eurovision - the morning after the night before and Eurovillage is already being broken down. All those Eurovision posters outlining the years of the Contest and their winners were gone - the stands for merchandise were being dismantled, all of the food and drink vans long driven off into the night. I suspect that later in the day that all of the sponsors merchandise and promotional vehicles would have gone too. All that was left of Eurovision as of Sunday 13th May was some of these banners on the security barriers:







The reason that we were at Eurovillage again on the Sunday was to go on a River tour - seeing the Square from a different viewpoint was an interesting one, as was looking at both sides of the Tagus and glimpsing all of the touristy things that we didn't have time to go and see (or couldn't see due to Ellen's mobility issues):










So that was my first Eurovision Live experience!
Eurovision 2018 will always be my first time and after chatting to other fans, I now realise it will be like another first time scenario in everyone's life...
You never ever forget your first love and
you'll never ever forget your first Eurovision Song Contest!
Going to my first Eurovision purely as a fan, no commitments bar having to be at each evening show at the right time, was the best thing I could have done. It made it easier not being a news website in that I don't have to report on anything or write instant reviews - it also meant that I can just swap to social media to flag up what I was doing there and then. It is a big difference to what had happened on my blog in the past during the Eurovision fortnight, what with writing about each day as quickly as possible. For a change, nothing untoward happened on the Friday or Saturday of the Final in my personal life, as it has done in previous years, so I was able to be fully fit for every single day that I was there.
Would I go for fan accreditation or even apply for a press place next year or during future Contests?
Looking at what those who do end up in the Press Centre have to do and the hours that they spend there, I am not yet convinced that it is worth flying out to a country just to spend two weeks under a roof working hard and producing the same output of almost every single other news outlet. I will have to consider if there is much point to that or whether I want to have some tourist time too - suppose it would depend on whether I consider 'getting accreditation' as being something that I must experience...

- Lisbon itself - it was wonderful, everyone was so helpful, the city that I saw was marvellous, great tourist locations to visit and a superb variety and standard of cuisine. Getting around was so easy when we worked out how convenient and inexpensive the taxis were, as was needed for Ellen's mobility issues;
- The Eurovision venue - I have nothing to compare with so it is of course the best ever! Baring the overly officious security which was regrettably necessary after the music-related atrocities over the past two years, everything else about the Contest was brilliant, from the concessions and merchandise stands at the Arena which, as long as you timed it right, were accessible relatively quickly, to the staff that helped you find where you needed to be. The Altice Arena was superb for acoustics and was well designed as far as the artists on stage and the fans were able to interact with each other. It became immediately obvious during my backstage tour that this was why it was selected for the Contest;
- The Fans - in particular the interaction with other fans that I had never ever met before and started talking to as though I'd known them for years. It was amazing to have people shout my name and start talking to me because of this blog or due to our friendship on Facebook. I also got to meet some of the artists I have chatted with over the rest of the season, as we got to the 'sharp end' of the 2018 run;
- The Contest - I cannot fault the entertainment that I received over the six nights that I was at the venue and it was a real buzz to see and hear all acts at least twice. I got the live experience I wanted and I was able to be at every evening show, which was my intention from when I decided to go to Lisbon in mid August last year. The fact that I had had such an amazing build up on the way during the 2018 season and met so many interesting people too meant that being in Lisbon topped off such an memorable Eurovision season.
To paraphrase the excellent John Miles:
Eurovision was my first love and it shall be my last
Going to see the Contest at the venue live had been my dream for such a long while now and I have attained that state - what is there now to do? According to most fans who have attended the live shows, you can never go back to not wanting to be there - is Israel my next port of call? Will I decide to go just as a fan again, or as an accredited one, or perhaps as part of the press pack? It's is too early to tell for 2019, there is probably still 52 weeks to go if you believe the Israeli Tourist Board and we have no clue as to which city it will be in - unless one artist participating in France's 'Destination Eurovision' in January this year happened to see into the future...
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