CEE Youth Group’s annual meeting was held in Yerevan in November, hosted by Wikimedia Armenia. One of the working groups formed at this meeting focused on local activities. After the meeting in Yerevan, the working group members held an online meeting of their own and brainstormed ideas for the events they will organize in 2026. One of the ideas proposed was the “Wiki Loves Eurovision” article-writing contest, which was also mentioned in a presentation at the Wikimedia CEE Meeting held in Istanbul in 2024 (We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the presentation of this idea.)
During this event, Wikimedians from the CEE region created and improved articles related to the Eurovision Song Contest. While designing the contest, the working group members—Kurmanbek, Nikos Likomitros, and Nurtenge—also sought input from CEE Hub staff members who support the CEE Youth Group. They applied to the CEE Hub’s Microgrants program and used the grant they received to make the contest a prize-winning event. Wiki Asmah, another member of the working group, also supported the team during the idea-generation and contribution-review phases. (We’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to her 🙌)
To be honest, reviewing the results of the contest, held between May 10 and June 10, 2026, turned out to be more difficult than we had expected. Because the team hadn’t anticipated that so many users would write/improve so many articles. A total of 31 users created/contributed to more than 200 articles. The team describes their feelings about this result as follows:
Asmah: The contest was incredibly fascinating. The most challenging part was the reviewing process. The submissions were in various languages, some of which we did not speak or understand, making the article evaluations quite a task. On top of that, some participants submitted over 100 articles, which made the reviewing process take much longer than expected. Overall, it was great to see the contest serve as a place for youth members across the region to showcase their (very promising, by the way) article-writing skills!
Caner: Seeing that the pilot project we launched this year—with the mindset of “let’s give this a try”—generated such interest, and successfully achieving all of our goals, has actually convinced us that we will continue this competition in an even more professional manner in the years to come. Furthermore, this achievement by a working group of the CEE Youth Group once again demonstrated the potential of the CEE Youth Group, which is a project of the CEE Hub.
Nikos: The contest was another example of the potential of the CEE Youth Group and our capacities. The targets were surpassed by a great margin, showcasing the potential our group’s activities have. What was a pilot became a great success. We learnt a lot about organising an international contest, working under strict deadlines and confirmed what the CEE Youth Group is made for. Also, I would like to thank my affiliate, Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, which supported the organising of the Greek edition of the contest in Greek Wikipedia.
Nursultan: As a Eurovision fan, I’m glad that the Wikimedia Movement finally has a separate competition dedicated to the world of Eurovision. I am very happy that the inaugural edition of the competition coincided with the 70th anniversary edition of Eurovision in May 2026! We exceeded all our expectations several times over from the results of the first (test) competition. Thanks to all the interested participants who took part and contributed to raising awareness of the Eurovision world! After the overwhelming success, we plan to organize this competition every year, improving the rules, competition pages and correcting all our mistakes. See you in May 2027!
We would like to thank the members of the CEE Youth Group and the CEE Hub for supporting us throughout this journey. With what we’ve learned today, there’s so much more we’ll achieve in the future…
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