esctoday.com has issued the following report from Ilari Karhapää:

Tonight Helsinki and the rest of Finland are celebrating Vappu and the Eurovision celebrations start right after on May 2nd. Despite that the first signs on the coming event are in place: Hartwall Areena has its huge banner and the first posters on streets of Helsinki are up. Also a tram painted all over with the Eurovision logo is running around town already. Those of you already in town keep your eyes open for an overnight transformation of the city.

The Fan center in Lasipalatsi opened today as well. Volunteers from Viisukuppila worked day and night to finish the preparations on time. The stylish and memorable decoration by designer Juha Vesto from Modeo Furniture store looks great and the Eurovision spirited Green Room theme reindeer antler installations in glowing pink will surely catch your eye.

At the Fan center fans can buy Eurovision books, CDs, badges and flags from most popular Eurovision countries. The enthusiastic volunteers will be able to answer all possible enquiries from domestic and international Eurovision tourists about the contest or general tourist matters. The desk is also serving as an agent for the Finnish National Lottery, with possibility to bet on ESC results or buy specially issued Eurovision scratch cards with €30 000 max prize.

Stockmann, the biggest department store in Scandinavia and the Baltics is also engaged in Eurovision. It has Eurovision and LORDI merchandise on sale in three different shops: a special shop in 7th floor, the souvenir shop in 4th floor – check out those non-Eurovision t-shirts with Kalevala and hard rock Hellsinki theme! – and the basement’s music store. Akateeminen Kirjakauppa has all the Eurovision related books on sale as well as a variety of Finnish weekly magazines with Eurovision special issues. Also drop into the main post office for Lordi and Hanna Pakarinen merchandise.

Check out the first photographs here.