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All over Liverpool, brightly colored flags and banners were hung from street posts and plastered to walls, promoting a major celebration that would attract millions of international spectators.
A town in north-west England is gearing up for a coronation, but not a coronation.
From May 9, Liverpool will host the popular Eurovision Song Contest, where singers representing 37 countries compete in an often over-the-top musical extravaganza.
It was a more spectacular host than Ukraine – who won last year’s event and will therefore welcome their competitors next week – but security concerns over a Russian invasion in February 2022, had to move to Liverpool.
“It’s really fun for the whole country,” said Emily Herbert, 25, as she rehearsed for some entertainment as part of the 10-day Eurovision festival that runs alongside the competition.
“We’ve never experienced anything like this, not in our lifetime.”
Construction crews are busy building the Eurovision village which will serve as a party zone for fans who failed to secure tickets to the sold-out semi-final and final events. The final is set for May 13.
‘Animosity to anything royal’
On Saturday, the big screen set up for Eurovision will broadcast the coronation ceremony in London of King Charles III, but it is not clear how many people will come, because, according to the poll, Liverpool is far from the most enthusiastic supporters of England. monarchy.
“I imagine Eurovision will be more popular than the coronation here,” said Elliot Barrett, 23, who spoke to CBC News as he sat and chatted with friends on Monday’s public holiday in England.
Barrett said she believes her parents care less about the royal family than she does.
“Compared to London, Liverpool will be more apathetic, antagonistic,” he said. “There will be more hatred for anything royal or regal.”
Liverpool, a northern port community often dubbed the second city of the British Empire in the 19th century, has a complicated history when it comes to its relationship with the British government.
Political experts and Liverpudlians themselves say the riots and protests of the 1970s and 80s against Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government sparked an anti-authoritarian, anti-British sentiment that still exists among the population today.
While everyone who spoke to CBC News said they did not believe that attitude was dominant in Liverpool, it often translated into anti-monarchist views.
A poll conducted by data collection and analysis company Focaldata for British news and opinion website Unherd estimated that only 38 percent of respondents living in the Liverpool-Riverside constituency agree or strongly agree that the monarchy is good for Britain, compared to the national average of 55 percent.
In Liverpool-Riverside, 32 percent of people are neutral on the issue.
At The previous poll was conducted in 2019The same constituency of Liverpool ranked as the least supportive of the monarchy in the UK.
Football fans are not fans of the monarchy
Liverpool football club fans often boo the national anthem, which is now God Save the Kingand last year they booed Prince William, who took part in the ceremony before the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
The team will play a home game at Anfield on Saturday, and the club is considering whether to play the national anthem – as requested by the Premier League – and the risk of booing being broadcast live on national sports channels is slim. hours after King Charles was officially crowned at Westminster Abbey.
“Liverpool have never been afraid to express their opinions,” said Peter Dwyer, a Liverpool season ticket holder who is originally from the city but now lives in Oxford, England.
Dwyer was in the crowd in May 2022, when Prince William was booed, and said most people in the stadium joined in.
He told CBC News that his father used to attend Liverpool matches in the 1930s, and said that back then, the fans often changed the lyrics to the song. God Save the King for “God save our Team.”
Dwyer said that while he did not want to overstate the issue, he acknowledged that among football fans, many have “anger and hatred” towards those in power.
It originates from the initial handling of the Hillsborough disasterhe said, when 97 soccer fans in Sheffield, England, were killed by their loved ones in a crowded section of the stadium on April 15, 1989.
Liverpool fans were initially blamed for the disaster by the police and even some members of the media, but an independent investigation eventually found that poor decisions by the police commander regarding crowd management led to the tragedy.
Dwyer said the initial reaction was to create a sense of disbelief – something the government does and often goes to the palace.
As a self-described anti-monarchist, he planned a holiday outside of England so that he would not have to be there during the coronation celebrations.
“It will ratchet up this week,” he said. “I can’t bear to be in the country.”
School children cheer Charles, Camilla
In Liverpool, several Union Jack flags were hung near malls, and some shops – mainly national chains – ran coronation promotions, but there weren’t many fans to be seen.
When Charles and Camilla, who will become queen on Saturday, visited Liverpool on April 26, they helped open the Eurovision stage and said they would watch the competition.
As part of the Beatles’ hometown tour, they were cheered by schoolchildren but also jeered by protesters with anti-monarchy Republican groups.
Holly Lucas, head teacher at a local primary school, encouraged her pupils to fly the flag during the visit of the King and Queen.
During a stop at a local coffee shop, she told CBC News that the kids love to join in, but Liverpool isn’t as royal as the rest of England.
“It’s a political issue,” Lucas said. “People would appreciate more support. Liverpool have got a bad reputation down south.”
Angry crowd ‘not representative’ of city
Liverpool, which experienced an industrial economic collapse in the 1970s and 80s, along with the departure of tens of thousands of people, has experienced population growth over a decade ago.
The city center includes a mix of students and young families, as well as some poor areas, according to David Jeffery, a senior lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool.
He says the city’s strong Irish population contributes to the idea that many in Liverpool don’t see themselves as British, but as “Scouse,” a nickname that refers to the local accent and Liverpudlian cultural identity.
Jeffery said research shows that Scousers tend to be left-wing and often deviate from “established rules and norms.”
When the boos of the loud football crowd, he said, what a group “mainly middle-aged … white people in many situations … not representative of the city as a whole.”
However, Jeffery said, he believes that the dominant feeling towards the monarchy may be indifferent.
“Most people, I’m just happy to leave the status quo, really,” he told CBC News during an interview on campus.
He said it was important to consider that the debate over the future of the monarchy was taking place at a time when inflation was rising – and when many Britons were unhappy with the way the government was run.
“If everything is sorted when we get King William, then the debate will be over.”
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