AINVision Autumn 2018

AINVision New Duveland 2018 is the 15th semi-annual AINVision Song Contest, which took place in New Duveland after they successfully won the hosting rights twice in a row, placing first in their previous hosted AINVision contest, New Duveland 2017, making it the second time the nation has hosted, and only the second time a nation has won the event while hosting.

Location
The host city, Tasbury, was announced on the 4th of February 2018 with a promotional video featuring local artists Part-Time Friends, releasing the song "Here We Are" to emphasise the nation's multilingual roots. The video also released all crucial event times, with Union Dome showcased throughout the video alongside city-wide views.

Union Dome was selected as the host venue, as it had a larger audjustable venue size compared to the previous addition in Plymouth, with a capacity of 40,000.

Host City
Tasbury is the capital and largest city of New Munster, and also the largest city in all of New Duveland, with a population of just over 4 million. Founded in 1799 as a penal colony, and later as a free settlement in 1810. The metropolis surrounds the entrance to the largest body of brackish water in the southern hemisphere, the New Munster Sea, and sprawls along the coasts on both sides of the sea entrance. Citizens are known as "Tasburians" and is the most culturally and economically important city in New Duveland.

The region has been inhabited by Maori populations for hundreds of years, with the first European settlers arriving in 1799, at first glance, mistaking the entrance to the sea for a large river, with Captain Arthur Phillip founding and establishing Tasbury as a penal colony. Successive colonial Governors assisted to transform the settlement into a thriving and independent metropolis. Since convict transportation ended in the mid 1800s the city has become a global cultural and economic centre. The population of Tasbury at the time of the 2015 census was 4 million. About 1.3 million of this total were born overseas and represent many different countries from around the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Tasbury and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home, with the most populous being French and Maori.

Tasbury has an advanced market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing, and tourism. Its gross regional product was $300 billion in 2012 making it a larger economy than countries such as the Philippines, Chile, and Egypt. There is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Tasbury and the city is promoted as Asia Pacific's leading financial hub, second only to Sydney. In addition to hosting events such as the 1954 Commonwealth Games and the 1984 Summer Olympics, millions of tourists come to Tasbury each year to see the city's landmarks. Its natural features include Phillip Straight, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Canterbury Beach, and Mt. Heather lookout. Man-made attractions such as the TCG and the Tasbury Straight Bridge are also well known to international visitors.

Union Dome, locally known as "The Globe" is one of the largest indoor stadiums in the city, and is one of the largest hemispherical building on Earth and took two and a half years to build. Shaped like a large white ball, it has a diameter of 110 meters (361 feet) and an inner height of 85 meters (279 feet). The volume of the building is 605,000 cubic meters (21,188,800 cubic feet). It has a seating capacity of 26,000 spectators for shows and concerts, but had been retro-fitted for the contest to have a capacity of 40,000.

The arena has a public observation deck, known as the "Global View", which transports visitors to the top of the area for a virtually unobstructed view of Tasbury. It has two spherical gondolas, each able to accommodate up to 16 passengers, which travel along parallel tracks on the exterior of the south side of the globe. Global View opened in February 2010 and carried 100,000 people during its first year of operation.

Espérance
Espérance is the capital and most populous city in the Province of Lapérouse, and is the second largest city in New Duveland. The city has estimated population of 3.7 million living in the Grande région de Espérance (Greater Espérance region). Espérance is part of the Central West Coast Land Division of Lapérouse, with the majority of the metropolitan area of Espérance located on the Hukanui Coastal Plain, a narrow strip between the Tasman Sea and the Anselme Ranges, a low coastal escarpment. The first areas settled were on the Hukanui River, with the city's central business district located on its shores. Espérance is formally divided into a number of local government areas, which themselves consist of a large number of suburbs, extending from Takou in the north to Poumoue in the south, and east inland to Doussarelle. The coastal area is dominated by the Eureka Peninsula, which juts out from a usually straight coastline into the Tasman Sea, creating a sheltered bay to the South, where the Hukanui River flows into. The main port of Espérance, (and the largest in Lapérouse) is based on reclaimed land on the northern side of the Eureka Peninsula, taking advantage of it's deep water surroundings.

Although Espérance had been a front runner for host selection, the lack of a larger indoor-seating venue that meets AINVision's guidelines could not be met in time, as the Espérance Arena's renovations would not be finished until the next year, and would of had a permanent capacity of 40,000.

Loisieux
Loisieux is the second largest city in the province of Lapérouse, and also the largest non-capital city in New Duveland, with a population of 650,000. Loisieux is a major tourist destination with its sunny subtropical climate and has become widely known for its surfing beaches, high-rise dominated skyline, theme parks, nightlife, casinos, and rainforest hinterland. The city dominated the nation's French and English entertainment industry with television productions and a major film industries located within the city.

It is speculated that Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse. first discovered the area where the city now lays, although settlement didn't occur until the late 1800s, and did not become an official city until 1910. Previously, the area was a loose collection of small towns that later merged together once the tourism and gambling industry took over the city.

The Palais des congrès et des expositions de Loisieux, locally known as "Le Centre" is located along the Grande Route (Grand highway) in Artillerie, Loisieux, Lapérouse. The world-class venue was opened on the 29th of June, 2004 at a cost of ND$150 million and is linked by a covered walkway to L'étoile Loisieux. The Centre was expanded at a cost of $40 million in early 2009. The makeover was funded by the Lapérouse Government, adding two extra exhibition halls, a registration office, three meeting rooms and three new kitchens and an extra 3,000 square metres of floor space in total. The Lapérouse Government commenced construction proceedings as a result of the increasing demand in Loisieux for larger space and concurrent sessions during national and international conventions and incentives. The final product required over 124,000 man hours, 1550 m3 of concrete poured, 375 tonnes of structural steel erected and 7,000 litres of paint.

The Centre's environmental practices have been recognised by the world's largest and most recognised environmental management program, EarthCheck. The Centre's environmental and social policy is driven by a volunteer committee of dedicated employees, who also maintain the Centre's annual EarthCheck accreditation program. The Centre has successfully implemented an Environmental Management and Sustainability Plan containing key strategies for energy and water conservation and waste management.

Macquarie
Macquarie is the capital and 6th largest city of New Duveland, and holds significant importance to the country's national identity. While the city itself has numerous indoor venues, the largest being the Macquarie Stadium, none had the capacity at the time to meet the standards of AINVision. The Macquarie Indoor Arena had a capacity of 15,000, with planned renovations to have a total of 20,000. However, these renovations did not go ahead as the city had not been selected to host.

The city itself is part of the Greater Koi Metropolitan Area, an area that contains multiple cities surpassing a population of over 5.5 million, including Tasbury, Kinsale, Albury, Listowel and Alexandria. The region formed in 2014 when the coastal suburbs/towns between the cities of Macquarie, Tasbury, Kinsale and Albury become almost entirely continuous, with most of the transportation, infrastructure and public serves interlocked in all the cities. The region is serviced by a vast network of trains, ferries and buses, and with the new high speed rail line between the four majour centres expecting to interlock the regions further.

Macquarie Stadium had been the front runner for selection, as the stadium has a fully retractable roof, but had been booked out months prior for a national stadium concert tour for Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour. Along with a multitude other of factors, such as major construction work along major freeways and main thoroughfares throughout the city meant that it was ruled out early on, and deemed to be too much of a hassle for the infrastructure to cope with.

Corporate sponsorship
- AeroWestfalica - Air New Duveland - AlpAir - Athena Security Solutions - Bank of Zambezi - Blume Technology Corporation - BSC - Coop Siculia - Fávaro High Speed Rail Solution - Fontanello Energy - Halotel

- Illium National Holdings Bank - KAISER Ciders Co - Lapérouse Airways - Lapérouse Bank - Lindt & Sprüngli - MBB - MIGROS - Network Two - New Duveland National Bank - New Retro Wave Records - NewSpeak Media

- NovaJet - Pan Am - Santana Drink Co.  - Sariah Airways - Siculia Airlines - Siculia Financial - Tassoni - VisitCunera - Yoobei Cosmetics - ZamAir

Presenter
Charlie Pickering is a local comedian, television and radio presenter, author and producer. He hosts The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, a weekly news satire television show on the NDBC. He is known as a former co-host on the current affairs program Tonight, and regularly appeared on the game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation as the "Generation X" team captain.

Pickering is a local of Tasbury, born and raised on the southside of the harbour. Originally a lawyer, Pickering made his first appearance in the Tasbury International Comedy Festival in 2002 with Michael Chamberlin in Boiling Point, a show which earned them the Piece of Wood Award. In 2003, Pickering and Chamberlin teamed up again in Boiling Point 2, the pair also appearing the same year with fellow comedian Terri Psiakis in Equal Third. In 2004, he appeared in Revolver. In 2005, Pickering launched Betterman at the MICF, a show he went on to tour in New Zealand where he won the Best International Act in the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards, and also at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he was nominated for the Perrier Award's Best Newcomer. In 2006 he presented his show Auto at the Tasbury International Comedy Festival, receiving a nomination for the Barry Award.

Intermission Acts
Throughout both the Final Performance and Voting period, there were a series of intermission acts that split the performance into 3 slots. On the performance night, Andy Grammer opened the show with his previously winning performance with Back Home, while during the intermission acts, local artists from throughout the country performed. Vance Joy, Part-Time Friend, AJR, The Cab, Peking Duk and Nicole Millar took the stage, with their songs Take Your Time, Here We Are, Weak, Lock Me Up, Fake Magic and Blindfolded respectively.

During the voting finals, even more local artists performed in-between voting segments, with Sheppard, Callum Scott, Cody Simpson, Dami Im, Emma Blackery and AJR taking to the stage with their songs Keep Me Crazy, Give Me Something, La Da Dee, Super Love, Dirt and Drama respectively.

Participating countries
The event saw 22 nations across the alliance perform, with notable contenders New Westfalen, Kingston and Boyce and Illium all taking part.