The event’s organising committee has been hard at work with preparations since June 2009. Because there’s definitely lots to be done. For a start, some six or seven forms have to be submitted for each and every entrant, and all of them have to be processed. Among the things involved are their music for the various performances, the technical programme, their previous performance records etc.

Efforts have also been underway to recruit around 180 volunteers needed during the event. Plenty of people have already signed up, and they will be deployed in accordance with a strict plan, working in teams. They will certainly also be treated well: volunteers living some distance from The Hague will be accommodated in a bungalow park in Kijkduin and will be provided with drinks and snacks. The group is also extremely mixed, comprising both men and women aged anywhere between 18 to 60-plus. Only the flower-girls on ice and the members of the DDD ice club from Dordrecht who perform during the opening ceremony, are younger.

Advance accreditation has to be arranged for the media, and from 4 March the site must be prepared and decorated for the event. So the organisers are certainly working flat out!