The contest finds itself in Izmedu once more, with the country hosting for the second time in a row to bring the number of hostings to nine. Thanks to the efforts of Dejan Mlakar in the 45th World Hit Festival, Izmedu won the right to host the Orchestra Special Edition that was planned by the Britonish overseership. With this opportunity in mind and after an intensive bidding process between two cities that have also formerly hosted a World Hit Festival, Polumisec was chosen to the host of the 46th World Hit Festival. The country of Izmedu is one of the most successful nations in the contest, having won the festival seven times and also carrying a strong overall record within the festival.
The country of Izmedu at large stands at the cross-roads of slavic and romantic cultures. It is a relatively small country of roughly 2,200,000 people. Led by the energetic Gabrijel Papic-Papratrovic, the modern democratic incarnation of Izmedu emerged from a long, bloody revolution that still marks a considerable part of the country's history. With a concerted focus on cultural and music development, the country is now a regular participant in music contests with an eye towards promotion and exposure on the international stage. Culturally, the country is primarily influenced by South Slavic cultures, with its language, architecture, and cultural norms being developed accordingly. However, the country also has a strong interest in the romance languages, specifically an Italo-Dalmatian influence in the language. Such influences slowly permeate in the Izmeduan lingua, subtly changing Izmeduan culture towards a 'slavo-romantic' bent.
To commemorate Fabio McAlpine's fifth edition as the overseer, Britonisea has planned an Orchestra Special Edition to celebrate this milestone. The theme itself is a focus on bringing a symphonic orchestra on the stage, creating sounds that can be epic, classy, contemporary, but also timeless all at once. The show's thematic is thus based upon bringing those sounds to life on stage, utilizing as many live instruments as possible and showcasing a feasibly large orchestra to match the symphonic sounds of old. Accordingly, the rest of the show (from the city, to the venue, to the outside activities) are also styled to the orchestra theme. While more details will be expressed later on in the post, the city of Polumisec hopes to host events in the lead up to the 46th World Hit Festival that actively promote the performance of orchestras by holding performance workshops, opportunities for interested performers to volunteer for the orchestra that RTI will assemble, and also a revival of orchestral concert halls.
The heart of the music is located not just on the stage, but also within the performers and the instruments that help augment their performance. We here at RTI hope that the return of the orchestra and the emphasis on live music helps reinforce the power of music to move, to stir feeling, and to create an atmosphere of awe for its listeners. RTI aims to use every advantage that this theme carries to craft a WHF experience that is one-of-a-kind from a typical WHF edition.
Alternative images
El frutanj toraj from the streets - El frutanj toraj at night - La romanticna rika - The Marina during the day - La fontana polumiseca
The city of
Polumisec (population: 185,000) is noted to be one of Izmedu's major seafront cities and is also the most populous city in the northern regions of Izmedu. As the district seat of Morska-Obala and the historical region of Ozraren, it is Northern Izmedu's 'unofficial capital' and also its center of culture. The relative distance from the heart of Izmedu means that Polumisec itself has staked out its own unique identity within the Izmeduan framework, being seen as a more 'quirky' seafront city in comparison to the domineering Izmedu or the more traditionally and musically-minded Mousiki. Of course, Polumisec's quirks come down to its very origin story as well. Known locally as the 'Crescent City,' the very founding of Polumisec was marked by it being a crossroads for Izmeduans that wanted to stay close to their identity, but wanted to be away from the chaos, violence, and now overbearing influence from the more popular Izmeduan cities. Recent years have indeed shifted this dynamic, which is why Polumisec proved to be the choice for RTI during the intensive bidding process behind the decision as to which city will host the Orchestra Special Edition.
The city gained a national prominence that allowed it to stand as a viable tourist and cultural alternative to Vodiznad and Mouski due to the hosting of the 41st World Hit Festival. The increased attention on Northern Izmedu not only increased the economic consumption and production within the area, it also now had a viable music identity to which to draw from that only helped bolster Polumisec's already strong tourist-friendly resume and landmarks. As the last hosting city in Izmedu known for theming the whole contest around a symphony, the emphasis around more classical music and orchestras was well-felt throughout Polumisec after WHF41. The size of local concert halls around the city has increased alongside the more symphonic bent to the quickly growing local music scene. Artists that would've traditionally stuck with Vodiznad or the surrounding municipalities began to make tour stops to Polumisec's Naida Arena or to a local concert hall to perform either large concertos or do small public performances. More names began to be associated with Polumisec, with budding artists beginning to immerse themselves within this new music culture and a new musical 'brand' beginning to develop.
The increased exposure and the slow but budding development of the city's music made Polumisec an even hotter destination for Izmeduan to holiday in. The move towards more symphonic music was somewhat of a heaven for Izmeduans wanting a break from the the much bigger cities down south. The city's reputation as a honeymoon destination for Izmeduans only increased, accommodating couples both young and old. Gondola rides in Polumisec's canals are a very common fixture for those in romantic relationships. Indeed, the image of the 'crescent city' proves it to be a very popular choice for those wanting a different experience, especially as Polumisec's local culture remains rather distinct from the rest of the country (by way of being the only major city and region to not have been severely impacted by the Izmeduan Revolution). Polumisec's more recent growth also allowed it to have a surcharge for its hospitality services, all of which have remained at a similar (if not an even higher) caliber from their previous World Hit Festival hosting.
RTI hopes to utilize the increased growth of Polumisec to its advantage for the upcoming Orchestra Special Edition. As noted while the theme was being described, RTI hopes to incorporate the orchestra theme to just beyond the time of the contest broadcast and the various rehearsals surrounding the contest. There will cooperations with Polumisec's local music halls to help the Izmeduan orchestra rehearse just in time for the contest. Additionally, the sites of auxiliary events (the World Hit Fair, the World Hit Village, and the World Hit Club) are also going to be placed right at the heart of the city and the surrounding marinas near Polumisec's coast. The El frutanj toraj (the tower of the brothers) will be the site of the World Hit Fair and La bazilika od sv. Marija's bell tower will of course be playing all of the submitted tunes in the lead up to the World Hit Festival. The World Hit Village and the World Hit Club will be closer to the marinas but within commuting distance to each other and to the arena, to ensure safe and speedy travel.
With the city taking on the hosting mantle for the second time in its history, RTI and the Polumisec city council hope that the city will provide a wonderful experience for all of the international delegations and guests visiting the country once more. We hope, just like in 41st World Hit Festival, that you will have a great time visiting Izmedu's northern reaches and its crescent.
Having also been previously the venue for the 41st World Hit Festival, the
Naida Arena (capacity: 15,000) once again takes on the duty of being the World Hit Festival's venue. The arena is well known for being the biggest multi-purpose arena in the districts that comprise the historical region of Ozraren/Northern Izmedu and is a popular holding point for musicians that originate the arena. Prior to its hosting in WHF41, the arena served not only just music concerts, but also played host to fashion shows, big sports games, and even tournaments from various organizations should there be time and space allowed. Since its hosting however, the Naida's functionalities changed to accommodate more concerts, and its bigger size (maintaining the 13,800 set from the previous hosting) allowed it to become a more popular stop for famed Izmeduan pop stars (notably holding a 4-night stint from hometown favorite, Dorotea Viskovic).
The arena once again goes another renovation in the lead up to the 46th World Hit Festival. The re-design wanted to reach for a sense of dual scale and intimacy, as well as making slight updates to the architecture from the brief interim from the 41st to the 46th festival. The renovations were primarily based upon improving the acoustics of the arena, as the orchestra special edition would of course involve more live instrumentation and playing from the participants than a regular World Hit Festival. While there was an option to dramatically re-build the arena and rival Izmedu's largest venue, the choice was made to do only a small expansion to keep the atmosphere as intimate as it possibly could've been in an arena setting. Thus, 15,000 was settled as the new permanent capacity for the Naida Arena.
The stage in the Naida Arena was built with the intention of being able to meet the regulations set forth by the Orchestra Special Edition and also with the goal of making sure that the orchestra was visible to the audience to a reasonable degree. While this involved some tough decisions on the stage's size, especially with the addition of a fuller symphony orchestra, the stage does maintain a simple design that is meant to put the focus on one performer. We will thus describe what the stage is capable of.
The Main StageThe main stage was designed to be as expansive as possible while keeping in mind the orchestra in front. There is a marked 'central' holding zone for performers to stand upon should they decide to keep the performance as simple as possible, but otherwise, the entirety of the main stage from the LED screens and the end of the brief catwalk that bisects the orchestra pit is available for the delegations' use. Every part of the floor seen in this image is capable of also producing LED images per request of the delegations. Additionally, the screen that provides the backdrop is also one long contiguous screen and movable, capable of being open or closed to whatever needs the delegations has for the performance.
The Orchestra PitThis is the hallmark of the design meant to fulfill to the requirements necessary to make this Orchestra Special Edition come to life. As seen on the preview image above, there are two parts to the orchestra pit. The pit to the audience's left is where the string instruments will be located, while the pit to the audience's part will have horns, the piano, and any other instruments that delegations need played live. A nation's conductor will most commonly perform their duties at the pit to the audience's right, but can be positioned anywhere within reason. The inclusion of a conductor is absolutely optional and is not required by any nation.
CapabilitiesAs per any Izmeduan stage, the usual effects are here for any delegations to use. Owing to the smaller stage and the orchestral configuration, they aren't as prevalent and need to be carefully used and positioned. Aquatechnics is possible so long as the orchestra does not get soaked, as well as pyrotechnics. The capacity for spark showers is also present. Additionally, we also have holograms available for anyone that wants to utilize them for their performance.
The little slogan is a teaser for a concept I have in mind. In function, the postcards will follow a similar format to WHF45. You will have a header and a postcard.
The same voting reveal system shall be used as per the recent World Hit Festivals, the two-phase voting reveal system. Most recently used in Vodiznad for the 45th World Hit Festival, this voting reveal system can trace its roots to Kalosia's hosting in the 26th World Hit Festival, in which the nation blueprinted the very system of presenting the votes in two parts. The system that RTI uses is modified slightly from the Kalosian approach. The specific system that's used here was prototyped in the 29th World Hit Festival, and we'll describe the two phases here.
Phase I concerns your lower votes (1-4). This is the part that's going to by rather quick in the IC broadcast, and we'll go through nation-by-nation to reveal the lower points values. We will keep presenting these votes until we have gone through each and every nation. This part does not have the spokespersons active, so they will not be RPed here. In this part, 2/3rds of the total result will be revealed, so a vast majority of the points will be known to the audience before the next phase. However, do keep in mind that this is certainly not the be all end all phase. While it has a good track of record of showing the likely top placers, the winners of Phase I is not always the winner of the contest.
Phase II concerns the maximum amount of points you can give (5). This phase will most resemble how the RL Eurovision conducts its voting. We'll contact your country's spokesperson, who will then reveal which nations got each country's 5 points. We'll go through them one by one once more until we have gone through every nation on the scoreboard. Since the points values are large (even if only the last third of the result is at stake), this phase is documented to have caused dramatic shifts to the scoreboard. Indeed, it is very possible to get many sets of 5 points in Phase II and do very well in the contest.
We also have a
Phase III, which will be described below. This phase is only invoked in case of World Hit Festival ties.
Please note that this system does not change the way you vote or even the points allocation. The voting procedures very much remain the same. You shall send your votes via a full ranking of all participating entries in the contest, which I (the host) shall then use to allocate the points. Your 1st rank will of course get 5 points, then so on and so forth.
These are currently all of the available details at hand for the 46th World Hit Festival. Let's make this orchestral edition a good one!
Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 8:29 am
I'm still sorting out the details but rest assured I am at work to make sure that the orchestra edition is an unforgettable one. It is absolutely an honor to be hosting this special edition and I can't wait to see all of your entries.
