Eurovision 2023: Exploring Liverpool's multi-agency approach to a large-scale event

In May 2023, Liverpool hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine, involving 37 competing nations. With over 12,000 accredited staff involved in the planning and delivery of Eurovision, it is the largest and most complex multi-agency event that Liverpool has ever hosted. The organisations involved included Culture Liverpool, Merseyside Police, Liverpool City Council, North West Ambulance Service, Liverpool One, BBC, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Camp and Furnace, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, and many more.

This presented an exciting opportunity to explore multi-agency working for a major live event. The research will identify the key themes associated with a multi-agency approach, around relationship building, consistency, longevity, and trust. It will also investigate the ways in which multi-agency information sharing takes place in the preparation and delivery of a large-scale live event, informing a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship on law enforcement information exchange.

To understand how agencies work together and share information for Eurovision 2023, the following data is collected: i.) field observations during multi-agency meetings, the multi-agency tabletop exercise, and the live events (i.e. opening ceremony, semi-finals, final); ii.) policy documents; iii.) post-event online surveys; and iv.) post-event semi-structured interviews. Participants include practitioners from a range of the organisations involved. Quantitative (descriptives) and qualitative (content, thematic) analyses will be conducted.

As a ‘work-in-progress’, an overview of the research and headline findings will be presented.

Poster presented at the British Society of Criminology Conference on 28th-30th June 2023 at UCLan (Preston, UK).