Bristol's bid to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine was over almost as soon as it began on Friday, when the BBC and Eurovision bosses announced a shortlist of cities still in contention, and Bristol wasn't on it.
As many as 20 cities across the United Kingdom offered to host the song contest next May, but Bristol was among the 13 cut from the bidding, along with London and Belfast, as Eurovision broadcasters and organisers whittled the competition down to seven cities.
Bristol's bid was unique among all those 20, in that the city does not yet have a venue to host it - Mayor Marvin Rees's plan was to divert the ongoing work to convert the Brabazon Hangars at Filton Airfield into a 17,000-capacity arena and convert it quickly into a bespoke venue to temporarily host the Eurovision Song Contest next May.
Read more: Eurovision 2023 shortlist - Bristol reacts as city ruled out as song contest host
Mr Rees said he was 'very disappointed' not to make the shortlist, because Bristol has strong links with Ukraine and his vision was to have an event that reflected and focused on Ukrainian culture. But his predecessor as Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, said thinking Bristol could host the song contest in the first place was fanciful.
Mr Ferguson's plan for a 10,000-capacity arena next to Temple Meads station was dropped by Mr Rees after he was elected in 2016, and instead he backed a privately-built arena, by Malaysian company YTL, in the Brabazon Hangars on the northern edge of Bristol at Filton Airfield.
That still has not been completed, although work has begun, and it is expected to be finished at some point in 2024 - after Mr Rees has left office and the post of Mayor itself has been scrapped. Now, Mr Ferguson has slated even the idea of bidding for Eurovision without a venue, and said he is still angry about his arena plan being ditched.
"We deserved to lose Eurovision," he said. "I don’t know who came up with the idea of Bristol bidding to stage the Eurovision Song Contest but it was a futile time-wasting political stunt with a snowball’s chance in hell of success. Not only was it time wasting, presumably at our expense, but it raised false hopes with many, especially the city’s hundreds of Ukrainian guests, some of whom were gathered together at City Hall last week to be told that it was a serious possibility and that they should give the bid their time and support.
"I was left to explain to my Ukrainian friends they were being led up the garden path by a futile fantasy! Bristol could have been a serious contender if our mayor had not chosen to cancel the Arena Island project at Temple Meads for which in 2016 we had acquired a fixed construction price and great operators who would have opened the venue by the end of 2019," he added.
"The planned Bristol Arena at Temple Meads was cancelled by Mayor Marvin Rees. Asking the European Broadcasting Union to believe that a suitable Eurovision venue could be delivered from scratch within a 75 year old aircraft hangar with no public transport infrastructure in just a few months was stretching credibility to the limit.
"Even if by some miracle something could have been cobbled together, it would have had little or no chance of competing with the seven shortlisted cities who have had the foresight to provide great venues, mostly within far more sustainable urban locations.
"Am I angry? Yes!" said Mr Ferguson. "I am deeply frustrated that party politics gets in the way of good things happening in Bristol, and continues to do so. The cancellation of the Bristol Arena, on a promise by the Filton developers that they would deliver one of their own, was a blatant stitch-up between the mayor and the Malaysian developers, who six years later have nothing but an empty hangar and bits of paper to show.
"Of course the right thing is to build an arena in the city, adjacent to the South West’s principal public transport hub at Temple Meads. It still would be possible if the Council had not hastily handed the site over to Legal & General, thereby losing the £50m or so worth of grant we had acquired," he added.
Mr Ferguson said after being mayor for four years, he now backed what turned out to be successful calls to ditch the role altogether. "As many will know, in 2012 I was a strong advocate of Bristol having an elected mayor, prior to the concept of the Metro Mayor coming to fruition in 2017," he said. "Now we only have 18 months or so of an elected city mayor remaining and I am sure that the arena fiasco has played a part in the mayoral referendum being called, resulting in the post coming to an end in May 2024. Let’s hope that a Committee and Council Leader system produces something more sensible and that we play to our communal strengths, of which we have many, rather than to some political fantasy.
"The YTL Arena may eventually come to fruition but it will be primarily car dependent and will never benefit the city in the way Bristol’s own Arena Island venue would have done," he added.
Mr Rees expressed his disappointment in the aftermath of the decision being made to cut Bristol's bid, but told BBC Radio Bristol he didn't think not having a venue ready was a factor.
"We're very disappointed for the city," he said. "We thought we had some fantastic people come forward to back our bid, including (Bristol Pride director) Daryn Carter, Bristol Pride, lots of people to thank.
"YTL arena obviously, our Ukrainian community as well, all in city hall just a week or so ago with excitement, and obviously locally yourself and Alex Lovell as well, huge champions of our bid. So we're disappointed but we continue to be ambitious for the city, and ambitions come with knockbacks, don't they," he said.
Read more: Eurovision Song Contest LIVE: Bristol misses out on shortlist for next year's competition
Read more: Marvin Rees 'very disappointed' after Bristol misses out on Eurovision
Bristol does not currently have a venue capable of hosting Eurovision, with the YTL arena not scheduled to open until 2024. But Rees and YTL had pledged to create a bespoke venue for the song contest a full year early.
And when he was asked by Hanson whether he thinks that this counted against Bristol, he disagreed.
"No, because the Brabazon hangars were big enough to take a purpose built set there. Our sense was that one of the biggest factors they were looking for was existing experience of hosting an event of this scale.
"Now we talked about the events we do host, the Balloon Fiesta, the Harbour Festival. And then we obviously have our big music festivals, Tokyo World, Love Saves The Day, Bristol Pride, Forwards Festival.
"But Birmingham's got the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow's just had COP, you know, Manchester, Liverpool have all had party conferences. So I think that we haven't had events of that scale, even though we were absolutely confident that we could build on our existing experiences to host Eurovision.
"And I think that's been one of the key factors, but we won't know fully until the BBC open the books and give us feedback. But it is experience and now we've been through it were in a better position to pursue our ambitions with Bristol in the future," he added.
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