The Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday night is billed as the biggest open-air show on Earth. It will be the first time the curtain-raiser for the world’s biggest sporting event has taken place outside a stadium.
Instead of the traditional parade around a stadium track, more than 8,000 of the world’s top athletes will be transported by boat along 6km of the River Seine from the Austerlitz bridge to the Trocadero in a kind of sporting Armada, as more than 300,000 people watch from the bridges and riverbanks and police, frogmen and snipers stand guard.
The first boats to sail through the River Seine will carry the Greek athletes. Giannis Antetokounmpo who was officially appointed the flag bearer for Greece at the Paris Olympics alongside foot march athlete Antigoni Drisbioti, will lead the flotilla.
Boat journey of opening ceremony through Paris’ landmarks
The journey will take in landmarks such as the Île Saint Louis, Notre-Dame de Paris and the Louvre Museum, which will provide the backdrops for 12 artistic tableaux devised by Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the ceremony, that will unfurl like a film.
Jolly said the storyline will encompass the many facets of France, from the historic events that unfolded in locations such as the Conciergerie, the prison where Marie Antoinette was jailed, to the modern day, with an emphasis on diversity.
“History shows we have sent a lot of ideas and innovations into the world, and the world in turn has come to Paris. The Seine tells the story of this great celebration of humanity, and the ceremony will reflect that,” he said.
While the athletes glide down the river, dancers, pop stars, tightrope walkers and acrobats will perform daring feats on water, rooftops, bridges and artificial islands using pontoons, floating pianos, helicopters and possibly even submarines, before a vast laser show finale is beamed from the Eiffel Tower.
As the athletes sail, a show will unfurl around them, described by its organizers as revolutionary and irreverent, as well as full of surprises.
One of the surprises installed is reportedly the performance of Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, two of the music industry’s most iconic voices.
The duo will reportedly perform the classic Édith Piaf song “La Vie en Rose.” The choice of song, a beloved French anthem, underscores the cultural and emotional weight of the occasion.
The idea of performing a show of this magnitude along a large stretch of river in a city under its highest terrorism alert was so outrageous that even Emmanuel Macron at first thought it was “a crazy and not very serious idea”.
But this week at the Elysée, the French president said: “We decided it was the right moment to deliver this crazy idea and make it real.”
Related: Athletes representing Greece at the Paris Olympic Games
