Paris 2024 Ceremonies

[TorchbearerSydney]

Any athlete that participates in the -  drive on a bus across Paris, assembling for boats, parade in boat, leave boat, walk up to seats, sit through Opening , bus back to Village - in mid summer is mad.

This is energy sapping before competition on an Olympian level.

[sebastien1214]

15 minutes ago, yoshi said:

So from what you're saying then I'm guessing roughly 3 hours for the parade down the Seine, then 45 minutes for the rear of the parade to catch up to the Trocadero, the protocol & the flame? Unless I've misunderstood the structure & the end of the torch relay will be on its own boat in the parade, or maybe even with the French athletes (maybe Bach will have his own boat...). I'm assuming the main ceremony broadcast would start with the Greek boat leaving Austerlitz & they know how long it'll take any one boat to reach Trocadero. Hopefully some of the pre-show will get on some broadcast feed, a massive scale street performance is also very Parisian 

I think it will look something like this. To have a better idea of the structure of the ceremony, we would have to wait until next month with the technical rehearsals of the boat parade on stage just to have an idea of the flow of boats, the distance between each boat, etc. The only thing we know is that it takes 42 minutes to go from Austerlitz -> Iena.

For the pre-show, I think that the television channels which will broadcast live for the pre-ceremony will show some parts of the pre-show live (I am thinking in particular of NBC's Today)

(in addition there are also "floating structures", or boats, which are planned for the artistic segments, at the latest news a little less than thirty. Also see how they will incorporate all that.)

11 minutes ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

Any athlete that participates in the -  drive on a bus across Paris, assembling for boats, parade in boat, leave boat, walk up to seats, sit through Opening , bus back to Village - in mid summer is mad.

This is energy sapping before competition on an Olympian level.

Factually, I don't see how all the points you note are scandalous, unprecedented, a horror, etc. etc.

- "drive on a bus across Paris": as I said one month ago, the distance between the Olympic village and the Seine is comparable to Tokyo, and three times shorter than in Rio. And believe me that no one will dare to take their car on July 26 in Paris, no risk of traffic jams.
- “assembly for boats”: what is the concrete difference compared to gathering in the stadium to form delegation groups? Apart from adding 10-15 minutes time to get on the boat (I don't think that's so unbearable?)?
- “parade in boat”: how difficult is it to be on a boat for 45 minutes?
- "walk up to seats": but in classic ceremonies, the athletes... walk, right?
- “sit through Opening”: what’s the difference with a classic ceremony, again?
- “bus back to Village”: what’s the difference with Tokyo and Rio again?
- "in mid summer": when was the last Summer Olympic Games... which did not take place in summer?

In addition, as a general, the opening ceremonies end around midnight (local time), here it will end at 11:15 p.m. Athletes will be able to return three quarters of an hour earlier than usual.

(and if they really don't want to go for fear of exhausting themselves, fortunately we don't stick a gun to their heads to force them to come...)

[Sir Rols]

1 hour ago, sebastien1214 said:

- “assembly for boats”: what is the concrete difference compared to gathering in the stadium to form delegation groups? Apart from adding 10-15 minutes time to get on the boat (I don't think that's so unbearable?)?
- “parade in boat”: how difficult is it to be on a boat for 45 minutes?

Still sounds quicker than the queues of paying customers lining up to get into the Musee d’Orsay or or the regular Bateau Mouche tours. 

1 hour ago, sebastien1214 said:

fortunately we don't stick a gun to their heads to force them to come...

You might have to resort to that to force them to endure the real most gruelling part of the ceremony - listening to Fencing 76’s speech.

[baron-pierreIV]

More musings on how the OC will go: 

I think the flotilla will start @ the OV island at 6:00 pm.  So @ 6:42-6:45, the boat carrying Hellas and Afghanistan will land @ Iena.  It'll take time for them to get the teams in formation once they disembark. (They will have to stick the smaller teams in an earlier or later boat than the alpha order, just to fill the 184 barges -- and once they land, they can then be sorted in proper alpha order for the March up the hill.) 

So the Parade of nations into that bowl of Le Troc can begin @ 7:30.  And once the March of les athletes uphill is underway, the remainder of the flotilla docks to bring in the rear of the nations and the all-important US and French delegations.  

Re the cauldron.  So, the Eiffel is definitely out because you can't light it there without having the Torch at least appear in the Troc assembly.  So there will probably be a "show" cauldron there in the Troc area, in addition to the permanent one at the Tuileries.  Timing-wise, it will just be too long to have the Torch make an appearance before the Tribune of Honor at Le Troc, then run down to the quai, cross the bridge, etc.,etc.  At some point, they will split the flame-- have one head for Le Troc and the other head for the Tuileries -- and just do a dual Lighting (which is what LA28 would be doing anyway).  

(And I don't know if the Estanguet troops are on same wavelenght as I am --but the "show" cauldron at Le Troc can then be transferred as a 2nd cauldron to Le Stade while the one at Tuileries remains the "free phot op" spot for the tourists.  

[Guilga]

1 hour ago, sebastien1214 said:

- "in mid summer": when was the last Summer Olympic Games... which did not take place in summer?

Actually for real Rio 2016, just because it's Winter in August in my hemisphere. 

 

40 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

1 hour ago, sebastien1214 said:

fortunately we don't stick a gun to their heads to force them to come...

You might have to resort to that to force them to endure the real most gruelling part of the ceremony - listening to Fencing 76’s speech.

Meh, if you dissociate from your body or just let a idea or daydream spark in your head, that might be just a little more bearable.

 

2 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Re the cauldron.  So, the Eiffel is definitely out because you can't light it there without having the Torch at least appear in the Troc assembly.  So there will probably be a "show" cauldron there in the Troc area, in addition to the permanent one at the Tuileries.  Timing-wise, it will just be too long to have the Torch make an appearance before the Tribune of Honor at Le Troc, then run down to the quai, cross the bridge, etc.,etc.  At some point, they will split the flame-- have one head for Le Troc and the other head for the Tuileries -- and just do a dual Lighting (which is what LA28 would be doing anyway).  

Ooor just make the Olympic Flame travel by boat by the Seine, just like the atlethes in reverse. That would make a good shot. 

[baron-pierreIV]

3 minutes ago, Guilga said:

Ooor just make the Olympic Flame travel by boat by the Seine, just like the atlethes in reverse. That would make a good shot. 

Too London 2012.  I would think they would want to minimize similarities to that.  Still, you need a flame where the VIPs and the Athletes are gathered -- and then there is the other one -- which could also be lit another time.  

Edited April 22 by baron-pierreIV

[Guilga]

2 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Still, you need a flame where the VIPs and the Athletes are gathered -- and then there is the other one -- which could also be lit another time.  

Yeah, but this isn't a normal ceremony, isn't it? Of course, your ideas overall are actually more likely based in recent calduron trends since 2016, but if anything can pull a twist on that part, it could be the one stretched along a river. Still, i believe that if my guess happens, the Olympic Flame segment should start from the Trocadero and then go to the Tullieres, so were kinda in agreement that there will be fire where the stars are. 

Now, i got in my mind some memories from Toronto 2015 Panam Games OC, that were in a stage inside the stadia, and the torch with the flame was positioned there at the beginning of the ceremony and then after everything else got to the calduron at the end of the show. Something like that could happen?

9 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Too London 2012.  I would think they would want to minimize similarities to that. 

Considering this is a opening ceremony within a river, maybe that wouldn't be really a problem. Everything else might as well be too different to anything that came before that when something is similar to a older ceremony, the public in general doesn't even notice. And even then, if someone does have the idea of a river leg, they could pass the flame along boats on the track like you would see at foot in a stadium if this becomes a concern.

[FYI]

2 hours ago, sebastien1214 said:

- "in mid summer": when was the last Summer Olympic Games... which did not take place in summer?

 

35 minutes ago, Guilga said:

Actually for real Rio 2016, just because it's Winter in August in my hemisphere. 

And then we’ll have Brisbane 2032 in the “winter”.  And from the looks of it, it’ll be ‘chillier’ there than it was in Rio for the Olympics.

[Sir Rols]

47 minutes ago, Guilga said:

Actually for real Rio 2016, just because it's Winter in August in my hemisphere. 

There’s winter… and then there’s equatorial winter. I know @Citius Altius Fortius still found the heat and humidity at Rio 2016 extremely debilitating.

[Guilga]

1 minute ago, Sir Rols said:

There’s winter… and then there’s equatorial winter. I know @Citius Altius Fortius still found the heat and humidity at Rio 2016 extremely debilitating.

Yeah, that's for sure. Even in winter it can get hot here!!

[baron-pierreIV]

1 hour ago, Guilga said:

Yeah, but this isn't a normal ceremony, isn't it? Of course, your ideas overall are actually more likely based in recent calduron trends since 2016, but if anything can pull a twist on that part, it could be the one stretched along a river. Still, i believe that if my guess happens, the Olympic Flame segment should start from the Trocadero and then go to the Tullieres, so were kinda in agreement that there will be fire where the stars are. 

Now, i got in my mind some memories from Toronto 2015 Panam Games OC, that were in a stage inside the stadia, and the torch with the flame was positioned there at the beginning of the ceremony and then after everything else got to the calduron at the end of the show. Something like that could happen?

Considering this is a opening ceremony within a river, maybe that wouldn't be really a problem. Everything else might as well be too different to anything that came before that when something is similar to a older ceremony, the public in general doesn't even notice. And even then, if someone does have the idea of a river leg, they could pass the flame along boats on the track like you would see at foot in a stadium if this becomes a concern.

Guliga, I've been studying the phenomenon for decades,  I know what I speak of.  And more often than not--if you want to look up past posts, I am almost on the nose.  So shall we say, I discount your views.  Thanks. 

[sebastien1214]

6 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

More musings on how the OC will go: 

I think the flotilla will start @ the OV island at 6:00 pm.  So @ 6:42-6:45, the boat carrying Hellas and Afghanistan will land @ Iena.  It'll take time for them to get the teams in formation once they disembark. (They will have to stick the smaller teams in an earlier or later boat than the alpha order, just to fill the 184 barges -- and once they land, they can then be sorted in proper alpha order for the March up the hill.) 

So the Parade of nations into that bowl of Le Troc can begin @ 7:30.  And once the March of les athletes uphill is underway, the remainder of the flotilla docks to bring in the rear of the nations and the all-important US and French delegations.  

Re the cauldron.  So, the Eiffel is definitely out because you can't light it there without having the Torch at least appear in the Troc assembly.  So there will probably be a "show" cauldron there in the Troc area, in addition to the permanent one at the Tuileries.  Timing-wise, it will just be too long to have the Torch make an appearance before the Tribune of Honor at Le Troc, then run down to the quai, cross the bridge, etc.,etc.  At some point, they will split the flame-- have one head for Le Troc and the other head for the Tuileries -- and just do a dual Lighting (which is what LA28 would be doing anyway).  

(And I don't know if the Estanguet troops are on same wavelenght as I am --but the "show" cauldron at Le Troc can then be transferred as a 2nd cauldron to Le Stade while the one at Tuileries remains the "free phot op" spot for the tourists.  

No boats will depart before 7 p.m. This is one of the things we know, it was announced (during the hearing of the Minister of the Interior if I remember correctly).

For the number of boats which will transport the delegations, we are, at the latest news, at 92, this is the latest figure announced by the Minister of the Interior. Don't forget that the small delegations will be together. And that not all 10,000 athletes will be present at the opening ceremony, but that is nothing new compared to the past. (after all, 92 boats in theory are enough to accommodate everyone, that's around a hundred people per boat on average, not an unrealistic figure).

The idea that was said and repeated by the organizing committee is that the athletes “cross” the artistic scenes. So I will say that it is quite likely that the boat parade will last something like two hours.

For disembarking, I had already mentioned it previously, but the disembarking zone extends over 2-3km after the Pont d'Iéna and the latest news was that a flotilla of buses (probably urban buses) was planned for those which are furthest from the Pont d'Iéna can be quickly repatriated to the Trocadéro. In fact the only challenge of this athletes' parade will be to put everything back in order at the Trocadéro, but that seems entirely feasible to me (on paper they know how to do it anyway since the "storyboard" of the ceremony, made with the TV director, has been completed since January-February)

For the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, I still think that there will be a second cauldron at the Trocadéro/Eiffel Tower, which potentially could be moved to the Stade de France, and that it will be this cauldron which will be lit (and then during the night that of the Louvre, the real one).

And I don't think the flame will arrive by boat (like in London) for two reasons:

- If the goal is to light it at the Louvre, there are platforms with spectators along the entire length of the Louvre. It is not possible to have a flame carrier cross this area for security reasons.
- If the goal is to light it at the Trocadéro/Eiffel Tower, from a "storyline" point of view, it is much more relevant to make the last relay on land (with the "axis" formed by the Trocadéro/ Eiffel Tower) than to do it by having the flame bearer arrive via a boat.

6 hours ago, Guilga said:

Actually for real Rio 2016, just because it's Winter in August in my hemisphere. 

I had completely skipped the southern hemisphere games in fact. Well, in reality, in my imagination, it's difficult to imagine the concept of "winter" in Brazil.

[baron-pierreIV]

I think probably 6500-7000 athletes will participate (per usual stats) -- these will be in sports contested from the start except for a few hundred who are already at the distant football venues, some in Lille, in Marseille, etc., and those whose competition start the next day. 

Also, maybe 1/3rd or 1/4th of the athletes have not arrived if their competition is in week 2.  The nations, with some help from the IOC, pay a certain daily, at-cost fee to stay in the OV.  Those not checked in by July 26 could probably be in off-site training camps.  

Edited April 22 by baron-pierreIV

[sebastien1214]

There was a press conference today to present the Seine security system for the OOC.

I will spare you the numerous details which mainly concern Parisians (and that would be too long a message, let's go straight to the point), for the few points which it seems relevant to me to indicate here:

- start of construction of the stands on June 17
- closure of the entire Seine area 8 days before the ceremony (by closure I mean "quasi-containment" which I have already had the opportunity to detail what it consisted of previously)

For the rest, it was a one-hour conference which explained everything in detail (date of closure of bridges and quays, closed metro stations, how to access the museums which are within the perimeter...), which gives still the impression that plan A is really going to come true (because given what has been shown, we feel the work done behind it, in general we don't do it for nothing).

[baron-pierreIV]

I think the Handover ceremonies at the Panathanaikos stadium in Athens yesterday were not only the most attended ever but IMHO the best ever -- or at least the most comprehensive TV coverage.  The HOC really has tailored it for international TV viewing with more and larger production numbers and with the live, simultaneous translation of the speeches in French and Greek into English in the stadium--not in the commentators' booths.  I don't recall that ever being done before in a Ceremony in Greece.  And to think that in 6 years' time, it will be the same anthems again playing.  

My only criticism: they made it so hard and ungainly for Beatrice Hess, the penultimate Lighter in the wheelchair.  Poor woman, she had to maneuver between the torch, the olive sprig and propelling herself forward.  She had to jockey right, left, right, left, etc. when they could have provided her with a stand or a motorized wheelchair so it would look streamlined.  (I probably would've dropped that UGLY torch on the ground on purpose.)  

Edited April 27 by baron-pierreIV

[sebastien1214]

Quite interesting article published today by the newspaper Le Parisien* on the boats which will participate in the opening ceremony (only those which will transport the athletes). Several things we learn:

- the smallest boats selected can accommodate a dozen people, the largest a thousand athletes
- the price that Paris 2024 pays for each boat ranges from €22k to €200k, knowing that even with these compensations the owners of the boats are mostly losers compared to the money they could have normally earned (cruises, riverboats ...); but they don't complain because the prestige more than compensates according to them (you can imagine that "climb aboard a boat that participated in the opening ceremony", it's potentially a seller, especially if it's big delegations who occupied the boat)

For the smaller boats, here is the "Frou-frou" which will participate in the opening ceremony (Le Parisien published another article** specifically on this boat today because its owner is known in France, she is a former presenter French television). Apparently it can't accommodate more than a dozen athletes, so it's a good example of the smallest boats we'll see.

If we look at the number of athletes in Tokyo, we could imagine that this boat could welcome, for example, Costa Rica, the Bahamas or Uruguay.

 

*https://www.leparisien.fr/jo-paris-2024/paris-2024-de-22-000-a-pres-de-200-000-euros-combien-les-bateaux-sont-payes-pour-la-ceremonie-douverture-04-05-2024-EDQ7ZYDF2FH5ZEOO5MYKZUTIKA.php

**https://www.leparisien.fr/jo-paris-2024/frou-frou-le-bateau-de-christine-bravo-participera-a-la-ceremonie-douverture-des-jo-une-victoire-04-05-2024-YMKMHW5KNJC5HBSFI5265EOW5M.php

[sebastien1214]

News about the opening ceremony (and not only that). First of all, the announcement of the musical director of the ceremonies who is Victor le Masne. It was he who notably composed the version of the Marseillaise for the Tokyo 2020 handover. He is also in charge of the official musical theme for Paris 2024, of which here is an extract:

Otherwise, like every month, Telerama has released a new interview article* with Thomas Jolly where we learn new things (these are really my favorite articles - the ones where we really go into detail about the artistic process):

- Some artists at the ceremony will be foreign (Céline Dion? She still has an Olympic history)
- The only non-French music will be... Imagine by John Lennon who will be back for the umpteenth time (this is the bad news of the day)
- The article mentions "twelve or thirteen scenes", while initially they had planned only 12. The impression that they have not yet decided how to integrate (or not) the Olympic cauldron of the Louvre into the history.
- Not counting security, there are around 18,000 people working on the ceremonies

* https://www.telerama.fr/musique/exclusif-thomas-jolly-nous-devoile-le-nom-du-directeur-musical-des-jo-et-un-extrait-de-sa-composition-7020343.php

[StefanMUC]

2 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

News about the opening ceremony (and not only that). First of all, the announcement of the musical director of the ceremonies who is Victor le Masne. It was he who notably composed the version of the Marseillaise for the Tokyo 2020 handover. He is also in charge of the official musical theme for Paris 2024, of which here is an extract:

Otherwise, like every month, Telerama has released a new interview article* with Thomas Jolly where we learn new things (these are really my favorite articles - the ones where we really go into detail about the artistic process):

- Some artists at the ceremony will be foreign (Céline Dion? She still has an Olympic history)
- The only non-French music will be... Imagine by John Lennon who will be back for the umpteenth time (this is the bad news of the day)
- The article mentions "twelve or thirteen scenes", while initially they had planned only 12. The impression that they have not yet decided how to integrate (or not) the Olympic cauldron of the Louvre into the history.
- Not counting security, there are around 18,000 people working on the ceremonies

* https://www.telerama.fr/musique/exclusif-thomas-jolly-nous-devoile-le-nom-du-directeur-musical-des-jo-et-un-extrait-de-sa-composition-7020343.php

Céline with her fragile health? If the foreigners are francophone, what about Garou or Lara Fabian?

[yoshi]

That's pretty much confirmation that Imagine is now part of the protocol, maybe even the Olympic Charter. I don't know about the foreign acts, who could be doing those - there's normally a nod to the next hosts in the opening ceremony now so maybe someone from LA?

[baron-pierreIV]

Will there be a sequence called Cher-chez la Femme?    A hologram sequence over the water which starts as Jeanne d'Arc, morphing into Mme. duBarry morphing into St. Bernadette, then as Marie Curie (I know she's Polish) then Coco Chanel (yes, a collaboratrix), then Josephine Baker (yes, Yank) into Edith Piaf . . . then Leslie Caron . . .  Catherine Deneuve . . .  Audrey Tatou. and then Gabriella Papadakis -- then finally "Marianne"?    

Edited May 8 by baron-pierreIV

[sebastien1214]

2 hours ago, StefanMUC said:

Céline with her fragile health? If the foreigners are francophone, what about Garou or Lara Fabian?

I had totally forgotten about that. It must be said that I don't really follow celebrity news...

Coming back to the extract of the Olympic theme which was revealed, I hadn't noticed it at all but I'm seeing more and more comments on social networks which point out the fact that they were funnyly inspired by Jurassic Park. Having not seen any of the films I didn't notice it, but it looks very... similar.

[Sir Rols]

A lot to take in this morning…

12 hours ago, sebastien1214 said:

 

 

I assume this is what we’ll be hearing at the medal ceremonies and perhaps the start of sessions. I won’t say I dislike it - it’s catchy and I don’t the orchestral part before the studio band kicks in, but I much preferred the music from the handover in Tokyo.

12 hours ago, sebastien1214 said:

- Some artists at the ceremony will be foreign (Céline Dion? She still has an Olympic history)
- The only non-French music will be... Imagine by John Lennon who will be back for the umpteenth time (this is the bad news of the day)

Is Celine confirmed or conjecture? Hope she makes it on stages (and gets a little beef on those bones).

Imagine. Sigh… It’s better than the OIympic hymn I suppose. It’s okay, but it’s never had much replay ability. We gotta get used to it I suppose. Nice royalties for Yoko and Sean.

[sebastien1214]

3 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

Is Celine confirmed or conjecture? Hope she makes it on stages (and gets a little beef on those bones).

Just a guess on my part. But that will probably fall through since as @StefanMUC rightly points out, her health problems make it highly unlikely that she will be present.

[Sir Rols]

4 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

Just a guess on my part.

Okay, then perhaps…

On 2/17/2024 at 12:41 PM, Taylor Swift said:

I can do it!

Love you all, Taylor xxx

 

[Guilga]

19 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I assume this is what we’ll be hearing at the medal ceremonies and perhaps the start of sessions. I won’t say I dislike it - it’s catchy and I don’t the orchestral part before the studio band kicks in, but I much preferred the music from the handover in Tokyo.

You gotta hear it in full, it was fully played at the Flame arrival in Marseille. I just couldn't stop myself repeating that part later, the orchestral only part is just the intro, later it blends with the band rather well in my view. (at the stream in the Olympics channel if it's available in Australia, time stamp 56:23)