The first semi-final will take place this evening at the St Jakobshalle arena.
There will be a reported 1,300 police officers on duty over the course of the festival, with additional forces coming in from Germany and France.
There has been increased tension surrounding the contest in recent years regarding Israel’s involvement.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 52,000 people, according to local health authorities.
This week, the Israeli delegation complained to Swiss police that during the opening “turquoise carpet” ceremony, a person made a threatening “slit-throat gesture” towards Israel’s 2025 entrant Yuval Raphael and members of her team.
Swiss news site Swissinfo said Basel cantonal police are “investigating the alleged threatening behaviour of an anti-Israel demonstrator”.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been contacted for comment.
Raphael is a survivor of the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023. She survived by hiding under bodies in a bomb shelter for eight hours.
Irish entrant Emmy, who will perform the song Laika Party in the second semi-final on Thursday, also attended the opening event on Sunday night.
Ireland’s entrant Emmy poses during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel. Photo: AP
“We weren’t on the same tram as them [Israel],” she said. “We had the experience of a lot of lovely people cheering us on. I was so happy about that.”
At last year’s song contest, there were large-scale protests in the host city of Malmo objecting to Israel’s participation.
This year, a number of broadcasters, including RTÉ, have asked for a meeting with the EBU over Israel’s involvement.
However, RTÉ’s director general Kevin Bakhurst said the national broadcaster “absolutely won’t” be pulling out of the contest.
Asked if she thinks Israel should compete, Emmy said: “It’s a difficult one, but I think my most important task as a singer-songwriter is to spread as much joy and comfort as I can, especially in hard times.”
The bookmakers’ odds of Ireland qualifying for the grand final have drifted in recent days. There are several strong performers in the second semi-final on Thursday night, including Australia’s Go-Jo with the song Milkshake Man and Malta’s Miriana Conte, with Serving.
Emmy said performing at Eurovision is “a challenging dream”. She added: “I’m just grateful and happy to be here… my only goal is to make Ireland proud. So of course I would love to get to the finals to try and make you proud.”
Eurovision is as much about spectacle as singing, and the Norwegian musician revealed details about her set.
The song is about the Soviet space dog Laika and Emmy will have a large rocket on stage which she will sing from.
This week, the EBU said it was aiming to “enhance the artists’ experience with the implementation of several new measures designed to support participants both on and off the stage”.
These appear to include cancelling semi-final media conferences and having designated areas backstage where no filming can take place.
“I felt secure every time we have been to the arena,” Emmy said yesterday.
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