By Olga Davidovich: These days, Lisbon is welcoming the participants and guests of the large-scale musical event in Europe - the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
About 30,000 fans from around the world are expected to arrive in Portugal. All the hotels are booked, and tickets for the final and semi-final shows are already sold out. Speech in a variety of languages can be heard in the streets of Lisbon.
In the Eurovision press centre, over 2,000 journalists from Portugal and other countries of the world are expected to work.
The amin venue of the contest is the Altice Arena. Technical rehearsals have been going on here since mid-April. The presenter runs the script. Today, the first rehearsals of the participants of the song contest began.
This year, 43 countries will compete in Portugal, including the representatives of Macedonia, which announced its decision to participate already after the final list was announced in November 2017. Among the participants is also Australia. This country continues to participate in the competition, having received a special permission from the organizing committee.
