Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen and the city's cultural director Pekka Timonen formally relinquished the duties of host city of the Eurovision Song Contest to the Serbian capital Belgrade on Friday.
About 200 guests were present at a ceremony held at Belgrade City Hall, including the winner of this year's contest, Serbia's Marija Serivovic.
Mayor Pajunen handed Belgrade Deputy Mayor Radmila Hrustanovic a special Helsinki Insignia, in the form of a key ring, which was designed by the Anteeksi Group and manufactured by jewellery designer Taru Tonder .
On the other side of the large key ring is a list of all previous ESC host cities.
"The aim is that the symbol would be passed on to all new host cities. The future cities can add their own insignia to the key ring", Timonen said.
Representatives of the European Broadcasting Union thanked Helsinki for turning the song contest into a real popular festival. It is hoped that the same kind of relaxed atmosphere would prevail in Belgrade and in all future host cities.
"The Eurovision Song Contest is really a big thing for Belgrade and for Serbia. Arrangements are already well underway", Timonen said.
The contest will be held at the Belgrade Arena. With its capacity for 20,000 spectators, it is even bigger than this year's venue, the Helsinki Arena. The dates of the contest will be May 22nd-24th.
