Austrian broadcaster ORF has brought together two designers with extensive Eurovision experience for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna: internationally acclaimed lighting designer Tim Routledge, who previously lit Eurovision in both Liverpool, UK in 2023 (and won a BAFTA for it) and Basel in 2025, and multi-award-winning stage designer Florian Wieder, who is designing his eighth Eurovision.
A rendering of the stage design concept from the LA- and Munich-based Wieder Design.
For the first time, the entire lighting rig will feature only LEDs and laser fixtures. Routledge has also incorporated 80 high-speed cable winches to create movable light effects. With the use of 100% energy-saving units, the Vienna show is expected to be the most sustainable in the show's modern era. Routledge has said of sustainability efforts for the show, "The Eurovision Song Contest is all about big moments. The challenge was to design something that appears impressive and large while being significantly more responsible behind the scenes. Using 100 per cent LED and laser technology on this scale shows that you can have both – spectacular visuals and sustainable production."
In another first, the show will use Arri cameras which have been used on Taylor Swift and Coldplay tours to give a more cinematic look.
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Setting the stage for the world's largest live music event is an LED surface shaped like a curved leaf. It forms the centerpiece of the show and was inspired by the Vienna Secession art movement to suggest renewal and openness.
Wieder chose three design leitmotifs:
- The Leaf: A symbol of origin and potential, it stands for new beginnings and shared design. Diverse music from all over Europe is written on it.
- The Curved Line: An expression of resonance, development and musical movement, it embodies connection, emotion and Viennese charm.
- The Construct: A golden structure that connects art with functionality, it creates order, supports artistic vision and forms a deliberate contrast to the organic curved line.
Wieder has also connected the artists Green Room (which for the past several years has been on camera) to the stage via a walkway so that the winner, when announced, can walk triumphantly through the audience rather than disappearing backstage, creating another great Eurovision moment.
For those who can't get enough of Eurovision once a year, Britain's National Science and Media Museum will unveil a new temporary exhibition Setting the Stage: 70 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest. Opening on May 8, the exhibition can be visited in Bradford, West Yorkshire, until February 2027. Setting the Stage will explore the technological history and innovation at the heart of the world’s largest live music event, enabling each artist to create their own show within the larger one and 166 million people all over the world to watch and vote. Advances in realtime broadcast technology and live visual production have raised the bar for every other live event.
This year's event will also make accessibility a priority-nine sign language interpreters from countries as diverse as China and German have been selected. ORF was the first Eurovision producer to introduce signing at the event when it was hosted in Austria in 2015. An AI-powered app, Accessify, is available for the three nights of competition and vibration vests will be onsite for audience members in the Stadthalle for the live show.
Theme music for the show will be a reinterpretation of another Austrian musical icon--Mozart. Dorothee Freiberger and Martin Gellner have reimagined The Magic Flute for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest.