With two years to go before the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, get ready for an opening ceremony like no other
For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, the opening ceremony will be not be taking place in a stadium. In 2024, in the heart of Paris, the Seine will be the setting for a spectacular show featuring the Olympic athletes, but also the monuments, bridges and cultural institutions along its banks.
A ceremony outside a stadium
Thinking outside the box, revolutionizing the Games, yet remaining accessible to a large audience is the challenge met by Paris 2024. Thanks to the concerted work of Paris 2024, the City of Paris, the French government, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), the opening ceremony is being remade transferred to the heart of what will become the athletes’ playing field as soon as it ends, the City of Lights itself, in the greatest popular celebration of sports right in the heart of Paris.
A ceremony on a river
The parade will take place in boats for each national delegations, equipped with cameras so that viewers can see the athletes up close. Wending their way from east to west, the athletes will cross the spectacular playing field that will showcase their sporting prowess over the next 16 days. The parade will come to the end of its 6 km route in front of the Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of the Olympic protocol and final shows will take place.
A ceremony with free admission for many spectators
This ceremony will be open to a very large audience, with no admission fee to view the entire parade on the upper quays.
Some 600,000 spectators will be invited to attend the festivities on the quays and bridges, which is ten times more than in an Olympic stadium. Thanks to 80 giant screens and speakers, everyone will be able to enjoy the magical atmosphere of this show reverberating throughout the French capital.
A ceremony designed for and by athletes
Athletes will be the heart and soul of the ceremony. By opening with the parade of the delegations, Paris 2024 is breaking with tradition.
Already during the introduction and throughout the ceremony, athletes will be featured on stage alongside the performers, as part of Paris 2024’s constant aim to hold Games created for and by athletes.