Eurovision organisers provide update on crowd noise and flags for Vienna 2026
- Dale Roberts
- Dec 17, 2025
- 1 min read
Eurovision’s host broadcaster ORF says it will not interfere with crowd noise during Israel’s performance at next year’s contest in Vienna.
Speaking at an ORF news conference reported by Reuters, executive producer Michael Krön said the broadcast would reflect what happens inside the arena.
“We will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are,” he said.
RF's director of programming Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz added:
"We won't play artificial applause over it at any point.".
Reuters has reported that ORF also said it would not ban Palestinian flags from the audience, provided they comply with Austrian law and security requirements.
“We will allow all official flags that exist in the world, if they comply with the law and are in a certain form, such as size and security risks,” Krön said.
The comments follow controversy at Eurovision 2025 in Basel, where crowd noise, including any booing was muted.
Eurovision 2026 will be hosted by Vienna from May 12 to 16.
Following boycotts, just 35 nations will take part, the smallest number since 2003.
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It’s about time they stopped using that artificial crowd noise to mask how people actually feel; Eurovision is supposed to be about the live experience, for better or worse. I’m glad ORF is choosing transparency for Vienna 2026 by showing the real atmosphere in the arena instead of playing canned applause over everything. It reminds me of the debate over "provably fair" mechanics in gaming, where people just want to see the raw data—I was actually reading a review of a plinko game that focused on that exact kind of transparency in results. If the organizers really want to keep the "United by Music" spirit, they have to be honest about the tension too.
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