It is the flagship event that will kick off the Olympic Games (OG) in Paris in the summer of 2024. The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is intended to be very ambitious, and for the first time in history, the celebrations will take place outside the walls of a stadium. Less than 500 days from its launch, and while a first presentation of the artistic concept of the event must be made before the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Wednesday, April 12, the contours of this ceremony, named “Olympic Seine” , become clearer.
Which route was chosen?
On Friday July 26, 2024, the start will be given at 8:24 p.m. The athletes of each national delegation will then begin their procession along the Seine, from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iéna, 6 kilometers downstream. They will board a flotilla of 140 to 170 boats, estimate provided by the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, Marc Guillaume, Thursday, March 30.
The latter particularly insisted on the logistical challenge of transporting more than 10,000 athletes: “When the Greek boat [the first, according to Olympic tradition] arrives at the Trocadero, the French boat which will leave last will probably not be still gone. The nautical parade should therefore end around 11:50 p.m., when all the delegations will have docked at the Trocadero, where the Olympic cauldron will be installed and where the final show will take place.
How many people will be able to attend the ceremony?
On December 13, 2021, the Paris 2024 board of directors had validated the project for such a ceremony, hoping “at least 600,000 spectators” to come and observe the Olympic procession. During his hearing in the Senate in October 2022, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, confirmed this figure, specifying that 100,000 places would be paid for – the low platforms -, while the others – the high platforms and certain bridges. , not reserved for logistics – would be accessible via a free ticket office.
The latter should distribute visitors according to about twenty zones, in order to avoid wandering all along the quays. Officially, this gauge has not been questioned, but it could be lowered to 500,000 or even 400,000 for security reasons. “We’re working on this area-by-area gauge. We don’t have a totem number,” recalled Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop), on March 13.
What means will be mobilized to ensure security?
It is the file that crystallizes the tensions. Faced with such a high gauge, the question arises: how will the police be able to manage the flows, knowing that more than a million Parisians will be circulating in public space that day?
In the fall of 2022, Gérald Darmanin announced the mobilization of 35,000 police officers for the opening ceremony. This is a higher number than the 30,000 members of the police forces mobilized every day during the Olympics.
To lead these teams, the Cojop appointed, Wednesday, April 5, a new director of security. Bruno Le Ray, former military governor of Paris, who has already worked on securing the sites of Euro 2016 football, will be responsible for security within the sites, including ceremonies.
To prevent potential lapses, a rehearsal of the river parade is scheduled to take place in July 2023 with “30 to 40 boats”, according to a senior official.
What about the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony?
As with the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games ceremony will take place outdoors. On August 28, 2024, the 184 delegations, represented by 4,400 athletes and 2,500 accompanying persons, will parade along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, to Place de la Concorde, where four stages will be set up. A total of 65,000 people should be able to attend the festivities. 35,000 of these places would be paid for, while the other 30,000, at the bottom of the avenue des Champs-Elysées, would be accessible free of charge.
On December 12, 2022, as part of the multi-year budget revision of the Cojop, the State, Paris, the Ile-de-France region and the Greater Paris metropolis increased their funding for the organization of the Paralympic Games (including the opening ceremony), to bring it to 170.6 million euros.
What entertainment is planned during the event?
For spectators who will have their ticket, the organizers provide a life-size show. Some 80 giant screens should make it possible to follow the passage of the delegations. But also artistic demonstrations, planned throughout the course.
In September, actor and director Thomas Jolly was chosen by the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee to plan the artistic direction of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games. And after presenting his concept to the IOC on Wednesday, a more official presentation should take place by the end of the summer.
