PARIS — If France’s recent parliamentary elections raised fears the country was veering toward the far right, organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony aim to project the opposite image of the country: open, inclusive and environmentally conscious.
As the International Olympic Committee seeks to reverse a decline in younger audience numbers by introducing more youth-oriented sports such as breakdancing and kiteboarding, the opening ceremony on Friday will aim also to set a Gen Z-friendly tone for the Games.
“We want people to understand from the first evening that these Games are a little unusual, that they won’t look quite like previous editions, so that’s why we were bold and ambitious,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee, told a press briefing a week before kick-off.
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For starters, it will mark the first time the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium.
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Instead, almost 100 boats carrying a majority of the 10,500 athletes attending the Games will travel along the Seine from the Austerlitz bridge to the Trocadero — the esplanade across from the Eiffel Tower.
The 3.7-mile 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.
“It’s a tale that’s inclusive and broad. It suggests that there is not just one idea of France, but several ideas, and that France has continued to evolve throughout history,” he said. “It’s actually very French to question yourself. It fuels arguments and protests and strikes, but that’s OK, that’s also part of the story.”
In fact, a labor union representing dancers filed a strike notice just one week before the ceremony, claiming unfair employment conditions.
Talks are ongoing between unions and Paname 24, the service provider for the ceremony, said Maud Le Pladec, director of dance for the Paris 2024 ceremonies and choreographer of the opening ceremony.
She’s part of the core group of creatives who worked on the event, who also include Daphné Bürki, styling and costumes director, and Victor Le Masne, musical director.
To keep details of the ceremony under wraps, they toiled away in a script room in a secret Paris apartment and rehearsed the different parts of the ceremony in warehouses, meaning everything will come together on the night.
“We had a lot of philosophical exchanges about what France represents for us, because we want it to be inclusive and representative of all identities, which is not always the case for Olympic ceremonies,” said Bürki, a television presenter who has been a juror on the first three seasons of “Drag Race France.”
Jolly said 98 percent of the ceremony will unfold live, with 2 percent of sequences pre-recorded to give viewers a glimpse inside historic buildings.
“It was a new process for everyone involved,” said the theater director, who is known for staging marathon Shakespeare productions and recently spearheaded the revival of the 1970s French rock opera “Starmania,” with costumes by Louis Vuitton creative director of womenswear Nicolas Ghesquière.
“For example, we created software that simulates the 3.7 miles of the Seine with all the buildings. I can even make the sun rise or set, or bring on rain or storms or rainbows, to visualize the scenography,” he said.
Set designer Emmanuelle Favre was charged with turning the ideas into reality, under the supervision of Thierry Reboul, director of ceremonies of the organizing committee.
“It was a tough task,” Jolly conceded. “We had to take into account the reality of Paris, of the Seine, its water, wind, sky, heritage sites, quays, stones, bridges and boats. And the fish! I mention them because we were careful to respect the river’s natural environment.”
Daylight will be key to the ceremony, which is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and expected to last three-and-a-half hours. “No lighting engineer can beat the sun setting on Paris,” said Jolly, noting that the move was also calculated to reduce the environmental footprint of the event.
As reported, it will be the first time that outfits for the opening ceremony are designed with their carbon impact in mind. Bürki said one tableau would feature upcycled clothes exclusively.
The event will also spotlight creations by Louis Vuitton and Dior, which both belong to luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a premium partner of the sporting competition; looks by 15 emerging designers, and original designs overseen by Olivier Bériot, head of the Paris 2024 costume department.
“We tried to do things consciously, contrary to other opening ceremonies where everything was made from scratch,” said Bürki. “Most of the clothes in the tableaux will be repurposed. Some of the performers want to keep their outfits, while others will go to the performing arts venues who want to give them a second life.”
Her workshop on the outskirts of Paris conducted fittings for all 3,000 performers. “It represents hours of work. Some outfits require yards of fabric. There is one tableau that involved roughly seven miles of ribbon,” she noted.
Le Pladec, director of the National Choreographical Center of Orleans, said the ceremony would feature a variety of styles.
“It’s an opportunity for me to represent all the dance cultures in France. After all, we are the cradle of dance, in my opinion,” she said.
“I represent contemporary dance, but I also work with ballet companies, and we’ll be celebrating the arrival of breaking in the Olympics with the presence of so-called urban dances and clubbing,” she added.
Le Masne, a composer and arranger who has worked with artists including electronic duo Justice, Woodkid and Juliette Armanet, said the score would likewise include symphonic orchestras like the National Orchestra of France and more contemporary genres like techno.
He hinted that popular performers, including international stars, would also be involved, though he declined to name names.
“It’s France welcoming the world. It’s not just a French event, it’s an event that must speak to as many people as possible, so we thought along those lines,” Le Masne said.
French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura was the target of racist insults in March following speculation that she would perform an Edith Piaf song at the opening ceremony. Far-right critics claimed her music does not represent France, even though she is the country’s most streamed artist.
More than 300,000 people are expected to watch the opening ceremony on the banks of the Seine, with an additional 1.5 billion people set to tune in worldwide.