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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

What we know so far about the audacious Paris Olympics opening ceremony

Organisers have promised something truly spectacular to kick off the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games - from tickets to location, guests to concerts, here's what we know so far about the opening ceremony.

Published: 24 May 2023 13:16 CEST
Updated: 29 May 2023 08:49 CEST

What we know so far about the audacious Paris Olympics opening ceremony

President of the Paris Organising Committee Tony Estanguet by the River Seine - the route of the Games opening ceremony. Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

Where?

The ceremony will be in the French capital, naturally, but unlike most previous Games, it will not take place in the main stadium.

In line with the Paris 2024 organisers’ wish to ‘take the Games into the city’, the opening ceremony will be right in the centre of Paris – on the River Seine.

The event will begin at the Pont d’Austerlitz, close to Jardin des Plantes in the 12th arrondissement.

The ceremony will go from Pont d’Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower. Map: Google maps

Boats will then travel 6km along the Seine – past some of Paris’s most famous landmarks including Notre-Dame, Île de la Cité and the Louvre – until it reaches the Eiffel Tower in the west of the city.

The lighting of the Olympic flame and the official declaration of the opening of the Games will take place in front of the Eiffel Tower.

When?

The ceremony tales place in the evening on Friday, July 26th, 2024.

The first events of the Games proper take place on Saturday, July 27th, though some qualifying events in football, handball, rugby and archery take place prior to the ceremony.

An artist’s impression of the opening ceremony. Graphic: Paris 2024

What?

As is traditional for opening ceremonies, organisers are keeping the exact details of the event under wraps so that viewers have a surprise on the night.

They will, however, be holding practice events from July 2023, so locals might get a sneak peak.

We do know, however, that it will take the form of a boat parade along the Seine, and will involve 10,000 athletes. There will be 91 boats – one for each national federation – plus another 50 boats for security.

We know that once the parade gets to the Eiffel Tower, a music and cultural event and the formal elements of the ceremony – lighting the flame and declaring the Games open – will take place on the Trocadero, just in front of the Tower.

How can you watch?

Obviously, the ceremony will be screened on TV around the world.

However, if you are in Paris, you might be able to watch in person – in total there will be space for 400,000 spectators along the 6km route. There will also be 80 giant screens along the banks of the river, and the athletes’ boats will have TV cameras on board so viewers will be able to see, and possibly hear from, athletes and delegations.

Spectator areas come in two parts – the lower riverbanks (quais) which will be fitted with seating areas and the upper embankments – where the road runs alongside the river – and bridges, which will be standing areas.

The quais are available for paid-for tickets – most of these have already sold out and only a few of the highest priced tickets (for €1,600 per ticket) are still available.

The standing areas will be made up of free tickets – but these must be registered in advance. The organising committee has so far not revealed the process for getting hold of these free tickets, but French media report that a form of lottery will open in January 2024.

Will there be tight security?

Extremely. All big events are potential terror targets, and bringing this opening ceremony out of the stadium and into the city has increased security headaches for the organisers.

A total 35,000 police will be on duty during the opening ceremony and France has also allowed extra security techniques that are not normally permitted in the country, including an expanded CCTV network, security drones and facial recognition technology.

The interior minister says that all police leave is cancelled for June, July and August 2024.

There is also the threat that protesters might try to disrupt the event.

And the closing ceremony?

This will be a more traditional event, held in Paris’s main stadium – Stade de France – on Sunday, August 11th. Tickets for this are also on sale in phase 2 of the ticket draw.

There will also be an opening and closing ceremony for the Paralympic Games, details of which are yet to be revealed.

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The giant sails of the Moulin Rouge’s windmill fell off on Wednesday, due to what its management called a technical problem.

The windmill is a striking addition to the Paris skyline and helps make the cabaret one of the most recognisable in the world, as well as giving it its name (moulin is the French word for mill).

Here are five facts about the tourist hotspot:

The Cancan is English

The stock image of the Moulin Rouge is of glitzy girls in frilly dresses kicking their legs high.

Tourists today shell out more than €100 to see their performances, twice a day, all year round.

Few know that the dance known as the French Cancan was invented by an Englishman, Charles Morton, the founder of the British music hall.

On a trip to France, he discovered a wilder, noisier and altogether more risqué variation of the Cancan dance that was all the rage in Europe at the time.

Morton brought the dance, which he called the French Cancan, back to London – from where it crossed back to France under its new name.

Absinthe and art

Before it became the polished venue it is today, the Moulin Rouge was a den of iniquity.

From when it first opened in 1889, many artists passed through – and often passed out.

Dancers doubled up as prostitutes, mingling with patrons in a whirl fuelled by the potent spirit absinthe, known for generating a haze in the minds of drinkers and rendering them catatonic.

Such wild scenes were immortalised in the paintings of one of the most famous artists to have frequented the windmill: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

His La Goulue, among others, depict the interior of the club and its colourful characters in a riotous blur.

Singers

It wasn’t all dance. There was also plenty of song at the Moulin Rouge.

Iconic French singer and actor Yves Montand strutted the Moulin’s stage, which also welcomed some of America’s biggest crooners, including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

A-listers who have taken in the spectacle include Elvis Presley, who according to the Moulin’s website never came to Paris without dropping by, as well as Salvador Dali, the Beatles and Buster Keaton.

Hollywood treatment

The Moulin Rouge’s fame got a further boost after getting the Hollywood treatment.

In 2001, Australian director Baz Luhrmann adapted it to the screen with Nicole Kidman leading the cast as a dancer in the Oscar-winning film.

The film in turn was turned into a highly popular musical that has been running for years in the West End and Broadway.

Survivor

The Moulin Rouge has survived several calamities down the years.

In 1915 a fire reduced most of it to a smouldering ruin, with just the facade and a portion of the stage still standing.

In the 1990s it was on the brink of financial collapse when the courts stepped in and appointed an administrator, who turned it around.

Today it pulls in around 600,000 visitors every year, nearly double its intake in the late 1990s.