Eurovision 2023: Submarines and raves in Liverpool cultural festival

Liverpool's St George's Hall was illuminated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag after the Russian invasion

A submarine parade through the streets and a rave held simultaneously in Liverpool and Kyiv will feature in a cultural festival in the run-up to this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Liverpool will host the contest in May, with the two-week festival taking place in the city ahead of the event.

The English National Opera will perform their take on classic Eurovision songs.

And in Liverpool Cathedral, Ukrainian artist Katya Buchatska will recreate a train carriage used to flee the war.

Ukraine won the Eurovision contest in 2022, but it was deemed too dangerous to stage the event in the winning country this year following the Russian invasion.

The UK's Sam Ryder came second at Eurovision 2022, behind winners Ukraine

As runners up, the UK offered to take up hosting duties on behalf of Ukraine.

Details of tickets will be announced at 08:00 GMT on Thursday, when a special episode of the Eurovisioncast podcast will be available on BBC Sounds.

There will be nine ticketed shows in total, including the semi-finals and dress rehearsals leading up to the grand final on 13 May.

The cultural festival - a key part of Liverpool's successful bid to hold the song contest - has been titled EuroFest, and will runalongside the main event from 1-14 May.

It will include the Blue and Yellow Submarine Parade, featuring imitation submarines, and inspired by the colours of the Ukrainian flag along with the song and film by Liverpool's most famous musical exports, The Beatles.

It is billed as "a huge outdoor underwater sea disco which will make its way through the city to kickstart the Eurovision party".

A yellow submarine pictured on Penny Lane in Liverpool - in tribute to the hit Beatles song and film of that name

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UK and Ukrainian designers, musicians and community groups will be involved in the parade, according to Liverpool City Council.

"They will create a huge parade which will have everything from glitterball jellyfish through to the yellow and blue submarine that will potentially float above you at some point, and there will be kazoo-playing seahorses," said the city's director of culture Claire McColgan.

"That will ignite Eurovision for us."

Rave Ukraine will take place simultaneously in Liverpool and Kyiv as "a celebration of the uniting power of music and the resilience of Ukrainians throughout the last year to keep making music, dancing and celebrating culture".

The English National Opera's outdoor concert will "be this incredible cultural clash of genres", McColgan said.

"I can see it in my head, with the costumes and the opulence that goes with opera, but with the complete campness of Eurovision, and it will just be great."

Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson received the symbolic Eurovision key in January

Ukrainian artist Buchatska will show a film that has been shot on the train journey between Izyum in eastern Ukraine, which was left in ruins after being captured by Russia, and the border with Poland.

The artist said it was "about the fragility of our environment, our lives and of the landscape surrounding us".

She added: "It is about the loss of certainties, of home, without knowing if you will ever be able to return. It is a one-way journey. It provokes a shift in the state of mind."

Of the 24 projects in EuroFest, 19 are collaborations between UK and Ukrainian artists, the city council said.

They are being funded by about £2m from the UK government.

Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said: "I am thrilled to see so many talented Ukrainian artists collaborating with their British counterparts to create unique and inspiring projects celebrating our shared love of music and culture."

Joanne Anderson, mayor of Liverpool, said: "The planned projects are joyful, hopeful, ambitious and moving - as you would expect from the unique circumstances in which we are hosting this event.

"I am particularly proud that we are able to provide a platform for so many brilliant Ukrainian artists and musicians, and that our local cultural sector has welcomed them with such warmth and spirit."

Beyond EuroFest, there will be a EuroLearn education strand and a community-focused EuroStreets project, whose plans include taking Eurovision-related performances into care homes.

Other events will include a "Bucks Fizz Bonanza", an appearance by the UK's last winners Katrina and the Waves, and an exhibition of work by 22 Ukrainian photographers.

All the build-up, insights and analysis is explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.

Eurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.