7000 athletes on 85 boats, 2000 performers, and music from singers such as Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura, and Céline Dion. And then there was the Olympic Cauldron rising into sky under a hot air balloon. Hosting the Opening Ceremony of the River Seine was certainly something of a risk for the Paris 2024 organisers, notably due to logistical and security challenges. However, by locating the event in well-known areas of central Paris and including accordion players, cancan dancers, and references to Les Misérables the organisers in other respects played it safe.
Hosting the ceremony on the River Seine was deeply paradoxical. It made the Opening Ceremony accessible to some at the same time as making it harder for many people to get close to the river bank. Several times more spectators were able to attend the ceremony than would have been possible at the Stade de France. However, QR codes are currently necessary in order to set foot in certain areas near the banks of the Seine. Thus, an event which is supposed to mark the beginning of a major celebration also brought with it constraints reminiscent of restrictions which were in place during Covid-19 lockdowns.
Many of the spectators on the banks of the River Seine were actually much further away from the official delegations than spectators normally are when such ceremonies take place in an athletics stadium. Furthermore, the way in which the Opening Ceremony lasted approximately four hours and saw athletes travel on the Seine from the Pont d’Austerlitz to near the Eiffel Tower made it almost impossible for spectators on the banks of the river to watch the entire event as it unfolded without depending on large television screens.
Hosting the ceremony on the Seine rather than in a stadium was certainly a break with Olympic tradition. Nevertheless, it simultaneously placed the focus on traditional locations at the very heart of Paris – the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre – rather than showcasing areas on the periphery of the French capital that will play a key role in the games.
The Stade de France has been a key driver in socio-economic regeneration in Seine-Saint-Denis since it was opened in 1998, although it is clear that significant challenges remain in a département which includes areas where levels of poverty are well above the national average. If the opening ceremony had taken place in the Stade de France, this would have provided Paris 2024 with a clearer means of embracing the cultural dynamism of the Greater Paris area as a whole rather than celebrating traditional tourist landmarks in the very heart of the city. It will be interesting to see what tone is set during the Olympic Closing Ceremony at the Stade de France.
Paris 2024 has, however, sought to embrace and celebrate forms of culture associated with the banlieues surrounding Paris. That said, the ways in which they have done so are again somewhat paradoxical. Breakdance – an element of hip-hop culture which notably became popular in areas surrounding major French cities in the 1980s – will be a demonstration event. As I argued when this decision was initially confirmed, it’s a move that in many ways make sense. Indeed, it would perhaps have made even more sense for the Paris 2024 breakdance events to be taking place in Seine-Saint-Denis given that the area is seen as the birthplace of French hip-hop.
However, the staging of the breakdance competitions at Place de la Concorde once again sees the emphasis being placed on central Paris rather than the Greater Paris area. Journeys between centres and peripheries in major French cities are part of the history of French hip-hop as performers have sought to rehearse and showcase their talents in a range of locations. In a Parisian context, this has included doing so in places such as Les Halles and Trocadéro. Nevertheless, by staging the breakdance events in a chic part of central Paris the organisers have largely removed the sport from the socio-political context in which it is rooted. To a certain extent, some contextualisation concerning the history of urban culture in France is provided at the Spot24 centre. However, this medium-sized temporary exhibition centre is also located right in the heart of central Paris, a mere 5-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower.
Despite this sense of disconnection, the organisers of Paris 2024 in many ways successfully redefined relations between sport and the arts within the ceremony. Prior to the event, Paris 2024 organising committee boss Tony Estanguet talked about how the event would break with tradition for this reason as well as due to it taking place on the Seine. He pointed out that traditional Olympic Opening Ceremonies have involved an artistic part that precedes the arrival of the athletes, whereas the Paris 2024 ceremony combined these two elements.
The ambitious and creative ways in which the worlds of sport and the arts interacted in the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony is in keeping with the way that this year’s Cultural Olympiad has involved a highly eclectic cultural mix. This has included a Rhapsodie Sportive combining classical music, breakdance and BMX, a performance mixing wrestling, poetry and theatre, as well as an actor delivering a monologue on stage to a horse.
The fact that the risk of staging an Opening Ceremony on the River Seine seems to have paid off will have come as a relief to President Macron as well as Paris 2024 organisers. Macron is still dealing with the consequences of the risk he took earlier this summer when dissolving France’s Assemblée Nationale to hold earlier than expected Legislative Elections. Given that much political uncertainty remains and France currently lacks a functioning government, Macron will be crossing his fingers that the Olympics and Paralympics pass off smoothly as well.
Dr. Jonathan Ervine is a Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at Bangor University where he is also Head of Modern Languages. He is currently writing a book about contemporary French sports films and has published on aspects of French sport such as football and national identity, sport and the media, and sports videogames.
