It’s Wednesday afternoon and the Benidorm Fest 2023 is enjoying its gala week. An electronic billboard in the city’s Plaza del Triángulo reads 59 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 15 in Spanish thermal currency at the exchange rate. Come on, Eileen, who cemented the Dexys Midnight Runners’ fame in 1982, plays on the patio at nearby Tiki Town Beach Club while several operators prepare the stage for free performances by Eurovision-related artists hours later and from there broadcast from shows the final of the RTVE competition, in which Blanca Paloma, Agoney and Alice Wonder, among others, compete against each other.
For the 2023 edition of the event, Benidorm is very well prepared to receive a different profile than its usual visitor. Last year, many bars and restaurants were closed for public holidays and the restrictions and safety measures related to the pandemic were still in effect.
But in the past few days, hotel reservations have skyrocketed during the off-season, according to tourism-focused outlet Hosteltur. Although Hosbec – employer of the hotel in Benidorm – points out that the data “is not enough to mitigate the weak occupancy of the second half of January 2023”. In other words, Benidorm Fest 2023 has literally come to clear the dark clouds of the previous days. The oddness of seeing a city of palm trees soaked in rain and neon lights illuminating deserted streets has gradually faded as festival-goers arrived throughout the week. The sun was also gradually returning, allowing the regulars to reoccupy the public spaces. One of the biggest night lights in the city center is in the modern town hall, which projects the word Benidorm and the colorful graphics of the RTVE competition in continuous flashing lights, giving the building the atmosphere of a shopping center in the middle of the Christmas season.
(ID) The President of the Generalitat of Valencia, Ximo Puig; RTVE CEO Elena Sánchez; and Benidorm Mayor Antonio Pérez pose during the first press conference of the week of Benidorm Fest 2023 at the Palau de la Generalitat on January 30, 2023 in Valencia.Rober Solsona (Europa Press)
Calling Benidorm a place of light where the sky is always blue is one of the obsessions of its mayor, the popular in every sense, Toni Pérez. His cordial understanding with the socialist Ximo Puig, the Valencian regional president, and with RTVE, located in the middle of both, created a musical event that strengthens the image of the three institutions. All seem to evoke the spirit of Pedro Zaragoza, the town’s most famous and visionary councillor. In the 1950s he became acting mayor with the idea of staying in office for a few weeks. In it he stayed for more than 15 years. During this time he built Benidorm as we know it. He made the city drinkable and educated, he promoted vertical construction, he traveled to Madrid on a Vespa to seduce Franco and convince him to legalize the bikini, he sent cases of local wine – which he called “bottle sun”. – to the Queen of Madrid England, he encouraged its music festival to resemble the famous San Remo and established diplomatic ties with Lapland to attract tourists from the north. As far as we know the Benidorm Fest hasn’t brought anyone from Lapland these days, but it has attracted a good handful of foreign journalists from the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Sweden… by an increasingly attractive Spaniard Eurovision pre-selection for specialized media .
Of the 1.5 million euros that the Valencian Municipality has invested last year to hold the competition, it has received a direct return of 13 million euros, Puig assured this Monday when signing the collaboration agreement that will allow Benidorm to celebrate the festival of 2023. His and that of RTVE and the Mayor’s Office of Benidorm, he said during his meeting with the media in Valencia’s majestic Palau de la Generalitat, is a “love song” that everyone expects to become very extensive. At the moment the composition already has several verses, a bridge and a chorus. The high occupancy of the hotels, the millions of reproductions related to the festival generated on the social networks of the three institutions and the wide presence of Valencian artists among the candidates (4 out of 18 this year) coincide with the ambitious transformation of the RTVE area center together in the municipality, creation of a new production center with which the company will add new skills in audiovisual production and training by having the most advanced technical resources.
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