Brighton Eurovision party cancelled for Wagner opera

Blue will represent the UK at this year's Eurovision song contest

Brighton's main Eurovision party, normally one of the biggest in the UK, has been cancelled this year to make way for an opera.

Instead of the eighth annual Duke of York's Picturehouse party, the song contest celebration will make way for a five-hour Wagner opera on Saturday.

Jon Barrenechea, the cinema's manager, said the opera had been booked before the date for Eurovision was announced.

The party receives a mention from TV host Graham Norton every year.

Mr Barrenechea said that staff were heartbroken at not being able to host the Eurovision celebration this year but he hoped to bring the party back to Brighton in 2012.

'Different crowd'

The cinema is famed for filling the auditorium with Eurovision fanatics when it shows the contest on its big screen each year.

This year, the auditorium will echo with the sounds Brünnhilde and her sisters in Wagner's Die Walküre (The Valkyries).

Those wanting to hear Blue, Jedward and their fellow Eurovision brothers and sisters will have to party elsewhere.

"People heard that we are not doing it so they are putting on alternatives and pubs will also be holding Eurovision parties," Mr Barrenechea said.

"We have sold a lot of tickets for the opera. It's a different crowd but we try to be all things to all people."