RFI: Londonvision?

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

I have a question for London poptimists: A tradition amongst Teh Wife and her girl friends is to have a big party on Eurovision night, with multidimensional voting, getting well drunk, etc etc. This year however, to celebrate The Graham Norton Takeover*, 5-7 of them will be spending the weekend in London instead. Of course they could get loads of cheap bouze and watch it in one of their hotel rooms, but they think it might be more fun to watch it Out Someplace.

So, the question is, does there exist such a thing in London as a pub or whatever making a thing out of Eurovision? For the girls, the main criteria are

1) it should be shown with some dedication, ie possible to see, hear & follow what's going on, not just having it on a low-volume telly drowned out by other music/noise;
2) they have Reached A Certain Age (abt 32-40), and may wish to avoid places full of only bingein' 18-year-olds or similar.

It is a longshot I realize, but maybe not inconceivable: does such an event exist?

*) (Maybe not entirely, though there are indeed fans among them)

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

one of mrs carsmile's cow-orkers is Properly Into Eurovision (goes to conventions and everything...), i shall have a word for you :)

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

(Btw, lest the criteria above give the wrong impression: they're not in any way looking for a hushed-reverence kind of locality either!)

[datura800.livejournal.com]

The free gay press in London (Boyz and QX, both available online) are filled with adverts for bars showing Eurovision in the weeks running up to it. So if you haven’t found anything by then it’ll be easy to find something.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i have some doubts the degree to which the gay free press pay great regard to condition 2 here!

but it is true eurovision will be available in a ton of friendly happy places and the GFP will certainly signal a lot of them

[datura800.livejournal.com]

h it’ll be incredibly easy to google a bar and find out what kind of age group goes there. Though often the adverts themselves are a huge giveaway!

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

yeah I suppose age group (and for that matter str8-friendliness etc) should be guessable. Thanks for the tip! :)

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

The only Eurovision party I have been to was round Carsmile's place - I'm certainly unaware of such a pub, but a good friend of mine is editor of what I am led to believe is a top Eurovision magazine, so if anyone knows about this, he will. Then again, he actually goes to it every year (sometimes spending like a week there, going to all the rehearsals and so on), so maybe not. I expect to see him on Saturday, so I will try to remember to ask him.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

My pal's expert advice (I emailed him so I wouldn't forget):

"well I should know but I really have no idea! I hate bars and pubs in Soho! There is a bar I think off the Strand called the Retrobar that's really big for Eurovision -- I was in there many years ago - but it was small, cramped and hot!


The ladies are better off in their hotel room - or they should just have a party at home!"

Sorry.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

There's a Swedish pub which always shows the Swedish heats of Eurovision, so they might show the finals too http://www.theharcourt.com