Helsinki Gay and Eurovision Song Contest Guide
|
For the next eight days, leading up to the Final on May 12th, Helsinki will be playing host to the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.
The contest is naturally mainly a TV event, with possibly 100 million or more couch-potatoes watching from their living-rooms, but it also has hardcore travelling fans, just like a major sporting competition.
And the documented fact is that a very large number of those real fan-club devotees - and a sizeable share of the performers themselves - are from the gay community.
To put it in a nutshell, the Eurovision Song Contest has become a gay icon, just as have artists like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Cher, or Gloria Gaynor.
In response to this, Helsingin Sanomat's weekly Nyt supplement, which came out today [Friday May 4th], has produced a two-page "Gay Guide to the City" for foreign visitors.
We link to it here. It offers a list of gay bars, important Eurovision venues, tips for gay tourists in the capital, events during the week, and even a (Gay) History of Finland.
The contest is naturally mainly a TV event, with possibly 100 million or more couch-potatoes watching from their living-rooms, but it also has hardcore travelling fans, just like a major sporting competition.
And the documented fact is that a very large number of those real fan-club devotees - and a sizeable share of the performers themselves - are from the gay community.
To put it in a nutshell, the Eurovision Song Contest has become a gay icon, just as have artists like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Cher, or Gloria Gaynor.
In response to this, Helsingin Sanomat's weekly Nyt supplement, which came out today [Friday May 4th], has produced a two-page "Gay Guide to the City" for foreign visitors.
We link to it here. It offers a list of gay bars, important Eurovision venues, tips for gay tourists in the capital, events during the week, and even a (Gay) History of Finland.
Helsingin Sanomat