How many people will be able to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2024 for free? Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, did not answer the question specifically, contenting himself with speaking of “several hundred thousand people”, who will be able to take their places on the upper part of the quays. “It will depend on the weather, on the publicity you make of it,” he said, on the occasion of the signing of a security protocol on the ceremony, signed Tuesday, May 23 with the organizing committee and Paris city hall.
Initially, the figure of 500,000 people had been put forward. But behind the scenes, several political and police sources had reported to AFP the figure of 400,000 free spectators. Valérie Pécresse, the LR president of the Île-de-France region, asked for a drop in this gauge, fearing that transport could not absorb the world. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports, mentioned last week a figure “around 400,000”.
This ceremony will begin at 8:24 p.m. on July 26, 2024. It will have the particularity of taking place outdoors, on the Seine. It will last three hours, with a river parade, an artistic show, and a protocol ceremony. One hundred and fifteen boats will parade over six kilometers of the Seine.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of people who can attend for free, 100,000 spectators will be installed on the lower quays of the river. The latter will have to pay for their place and will be under the responsibility of the organizing committee.
Some 2,800 peacekeepers will be assigned by 2024 in the Paris metropolitan area and the minister announced on Tuesday that he was adding “five units of mobile forces” to the prefect of police “at the end of this month of August”.
“An artistic challenge and an organizational challenge”, summed up the PS mayor Anne Hidalgo, present at this signing at the Ministry of the Interior.
