An illustration of what the opening ceremony river parade will look like Credit: AFP/Florian Hulleu

Let the games begin! What to expect at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics

Anywhere between 6,000 and 7,000 athletes will parade down the Seine, with half a million expected to watch in person.

Preparations for this year’s biggest sporting event are winding down. Athletes and tourists are streaming into the French capital. The whole world’s waiting with bated breath and eager anticipation.

In less than two days, on July 26 (the 27th in our neck of the woods), the 2024 Paris Olympics Games will officially open with a spectacle that more than a billion people are expected to watch. While the City of Light has long been draped in Olympic regalia, details about the opening ceremony have been mostly kept under wraps.

The POST scoured the internet for a quick rundown of what is known so far about the highly anticipated event.

A ‘games wide open’

Opening ceremonies, with the much anticipated athletes’ parade, for previous Olympic games have mostly been held in the main athletics stadium. For the Paris Olympics, however, organizers have moved the event outside and into the heart of the capital, staying faithful to their motto “Games Wide Open,” as reported on France 24.

About 6,000 to 7,000 athletes are set to sail down a six-kilometer (four-mile) stretch of the river Seine, starting from the Austerlitz bridge in the east to the Eiffel Tower, aboard 85 barges and boats.

Opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games on the River Seine.

Meanwhile, up to 500,000 people are set to watch in person from specially built stands, where tickets have sold for up to €2,700 ($2,900). People can watch for free on the riverbanks, and for those lucky enough, from overlooking balconies and apartments.

The original plan was to have a ceremony that’s free for all, with millions watching the parade from the banks of the Seine. Those ambitions were dashed by the French government, which feared security threats in a city that has had major extremist attacks as recently as 2015. About 45,000 members of the security forces will be on duty.

Given the immense scale of the parade, which is expected to clock in at four hours, it has never been rehearsed in full.

From the sky to the river

Stage actor and director Thomas Jolly of rock-opera musical Starmania fame was tapped two years ago to helm the artistic direction of the opening and closing ceremonies. In an interview with the Associated Press, he described the responsibility of leading such a grand spectacle as a responsibility that was “ambitious, complex, but magnificent for an artist.”

Joining the talented artistic team are Fanny Herrero, a writer for the French TV series Call My Agent!, best-selling author Leila Slimani, and renowned historian Patrick Boucheron.

Thomas Jolly of rock-opera musical Starmania fame was tapped two years ago to helm the artistic direction of the Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies. Photo from Getty Images

The parade is going to be massive, and the show itself will just be as grandiose. The program is reported to have 12 different sections, with an estimated 3,000 dancers, singers, and entertainers positioned on both banks of the Seine, the bridges, and nearby monuments. A tribute to the Notre-Dame Cathedral has been confirmed, which is in the process of being renovated after a devastating fire in 2019.

Starting at 1730 GMT on the 26th (12:30 am on the 27th for us over here in the Philippines), almost the entire ceremony will take place bathed in sunshine leading to dusk, with Jolly keeping his fingers crossed for a Parisian sunset. The program is expected to be punctuated with a light show.

French-Malian R&B star Aya Nakamura, the most widely streamed French-speaking singer, is expected to perform. Photo from Getty Images

Of course, no event of such epic scale is without entertainment. The music is said to be a mix of classical, traditional chanson francaise, as well as rap and electro.

R&B star Aya Nakamura is widely tipped to perform despite criticism from far-right politicians, including Marine Le Pen who ranted on national radio: “I’m going to talk to you about her outfit, her vulgarity, the fact that she doesn’t sing French. She doesn’t sing foreign either. She sings we don’t know what.”

The French-Malian Nakamura is the most streamed French-speaking singer in the world. Her performance comes at a pivotal point in the wake of a parliamentary election that saw the anti-immigration far-right gain a historic 143 seats in the national parliament.

While it has yet to be confirmed, superstar Celine Dion has been rumoured to make a comeback performance at the Paris Olympics. Should she make a return onstage, it will mark the pop legend’s first performance since halting her touring schedule and stepping away from the spotlight after being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in December 2022. Rumors of Lady Gaga performing at the opening ceremony have also made the rounds online.

Rumors of Celine Dion and Lady Gaga performing at the opening ceremony have been making the rounds online. Photos from Getty Images

French electro superstars Daft Punk said they had turned down an invitation to play, while French DJ David Guetta has been overlooked “much to his irritation.” He was reported to have said: ‘I don’t understand at all.’

In defense of the “snub,” Jolly responded that popularity was not part of the criteria for his opening and closing ceremonies, saying he doesn’t base artistic direction simply on the number of album sales. “I have nothing against David Guetta or against anyone. I am not here to give my tastes. And David Guetta, quite simply, what he does as art does not relate to what we want to do,” he said as quoted in a report on Le Monde.

Controversies aside, Jolly has “strongly hinted” that a submersible or submarine could emerge from the waters of the Seine at some point. “You have the sky, you have bridges, you have water, you have banks, you have so much space to make poetry,” Jolly told reporters last week. “So why not under the river also?”

When pressed by reporters for more information, he said, “I’ll be fired if I tell you anything,” adding, “All I can tell you is that it will be very meaningful for the artists that will perform.”

Whether or not a submarine will actually emerge from the Seine remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure—the 2024 Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony will be one for the books. 

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