Tourists will not be able to watch the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics along the Seine River for free due to logistics and security issues, the French government announced Tuesday. On the other hand, access without prior payment will be by invitation only.
The organization had planned a spectacular opening ceremony on July 26 for some 600,000 people, most of whom would watch the parade of participating countries for free from the banks of the river. But logistical and security concerns (and complaints from bouquinistes selling old books on the banks of the Seine, who want to stay in their jobs) have led the government to progressively scale back its ambitions.
At the beginning of this year, the total number of spectators dropped to around 300,000. On Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, revealed that 104,000 people will watch the ceremony from the lower area of ??the riverbank, which will be equipped with stands and who will have to pay an entrance fee to access it. They will be joined by another 222,000 who will do so from the upper zone, who will have to register on a platform in advance but who will not have to pay an entrance fee.
“To manage the movement of crowds, we cannot tell everyone to come,” lamented Darmanin. “For security reasons that everyone understands, in particular the terrorist threat of recent weeks, we are obliged to make it free but contained.” It means that tourists from France or elsewhere will not be able to register. Access to the ceremony will be allocated through quotas to selected residents of cities or regions hosting Olympic events, to local sports federations and to others chosen by the organizers or their partners, Interior Ministry officials said.
Guests will be required to pass security checks and will receive QR codes to pass the security barriers. Local councils can invite “their employees, children from local football clubs and their parents”, for example, “Sports federations could invite foreigners as part of their quotas, and cities could offer places to people with disability or in a situation of need, to “diversify” access,” said Darmanin, who stressed that their objective is not to punish tourists. At the same time, he insisted that the Paris Games remain the most open.
Another 200,000 people are expected to watch the inauguration from inside apartments or buildings overlooking the river, and about 50,000 from fan areas, Darmanin said. Paris 2024 organizers declined to comment on the change and referred questions to the government.
About 180 boats will be present on the river during the ceremony, half of them to transport the 206 delegations of athletes who will participate in the Games, while the rest will be of a logistical, security nature or for the planned shows.
For the first time since the time of Louis Normally, ships pass each other in both directions.
The boats that will host the athletes will be the classic bateaux-mouche boats that take tourists along the river every day and will be decorated for the occasion. The minister indicated that between July 20 and 26, the movement of boats on the Seine will be closed for preparations for the ceremony.
Darmanin pointed out that during the ceremony 45,000 security agents will be mobilized, in addition to 35 boats, four helicopters, one hundred divers and an anti-drone device, similar to the one that France sent for the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, where at the request of local authorities was in charge of that section.
The minister reiterated that from 7:00 p.m. on July 26, traffic at the capital’s airports will be closed, “something that is unprecedented.” The security device will also take into account the arrival to the city of some 250 leaders from around the world who will be in the Trocadero area, the highlight of the inauguration ceremony.
