In the case of Ireland 2021 the stage was actually ready. They were done quite some time before the end of the postcard and everyone around me in the audience did not understand why they didn’t just start. Turns out a camera had stopped working and they had to put all of the pre-programmed stuff onto a new camera last minute.
I think the upside down pyramide in Kaleen's performance was the reason . In the grand finale they even put the Brighton clip right before Austria, which is a little weird because they should've done that after all 25 country's performed and it made Kaleen look like a interval act
Whole Ireland 2021 was rough, the almost 30 seconds of completely dead air with Ukraine 2011 was near unbearable to watch. It also seems like Sand was repeatedly problematic haha (or maybe We Will Rave even though that barely had any staging), but at least there seemed to be protocol to fill that gap rather elegantly.
I found that Eurovision 2014 had multiple errors in the stage ready sequence - whether it was the stage not being ready or a technical issue I don't know. The sound frequently played early or late (in relation to that bell sound when the country flag shrinks), so I don't really know what happened there.
