The Swiss city of Basel is going into party mode this weekend, as it prepares to welcome the Eurovision Song Contest.
It's been 36 years since Switzerland last hosted the contest, after Celine Dion won in 1988, so the wait to roll out Eurovision's famous turquoise carpet has been long.
Switzerland hosted the first ever Eurovision at Lugano in 1956, but its record since Dion's victory in Dublin has been mixed.
Between 2007 and 2010, and again between 2015 and 2018, its entries failed to even qualify for the final. Swiss singer Nemo finally won last year with The Code.
Perhaps because of that, Basel is determined to make this contest memorable for all the right reasons. At 1.3km (0.8 miles), its turquoise carpet will be Eurovision's longest ever, stretching from Basel town hall, across the river Rhine all the way to the Eurovision village.
The head of Basel's government, Conradin Cramer, believes his city of just 175,000 residents is the natural home for Eurovision's estimated half a million visitors.
Because of its borders with both France and Germany, Basel is "the heart of Europe", he says. What's more, he points out, the city has a long humanist tradition; when other cities in medieval Europe were cracking down on free thinkers, Basel welcomed them.
So Basel, with its geographic location and its history of tolerance, and Eurovision with its tradition of inclusivity and diversity are, he says "the perfect match".