The music and the shouts of the protesters echoed throughout Tampere on Saturday night

To Tampere On Saturday, Sori Square protested against the Yle New Music Competition (UMK) being held at the Nokia Arena the same evening, and the Eurovision Song Contest held in May in Vienna. UMK is Finland’s Eurovision qualifier.

As in previous years, the background of the demonstration is the situation in Gaza and Israel’s participation in Eurovision. The question has already overshadowed several sages. Now the talk of boycotts has also started to turn into reality, when Holland, Spain, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia have decided not to participate in this spring’s competition because of Israel.

The Sori square demonstration was organized by the Tampere with Palestine activist group and the Finnish Palestine network Sumud. In connection with the organizers’ event publishing the first of the demands is that Israel is not allowed to participate in Eurovision. Alternatively, the Yle and UMK winner should take a stand against Israel by boycotting visas, according to the protesters.

Amulehti followed the demonstration from one evening to seven in the evening. Approximately one hundred people participated in the demonstration. In addition to shouting in support of Palestine, the demonstrators also banged pots. The situation had the feeling of a singing competition, because the same Eurovisa music was played from the dj booth belonging to the official side program of UMK on the other side of Sori Square. The event went peacefully.

The UMK final starts at the Nokia Arena on Saturday at 9 p.m. Yle does not oblige the winner to represent Finland at Eurovision, but Etta except for all the competitors announced on Saturday that they are ready to go to the visas.