The Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, detailed to the Senate on Tuesday, March 5, the expected composition of the audience for the opening ceremony of the Olympics along the Seine on July 26. Initially, 600,000 people were expected.
The number of spectators for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics had already halved a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, March 5, the composition of the audience itself was profoundly changed, following the announcements of the Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, before the Senate’s law commission.
On July 26, 2024, for the first time in Olympic history, the ceremony opening the Games will not take place in a stadium, but on a river. Dozens of boats carrying the different delegations are expected on the Seine, for a 6-kilometer nautical parade crossing Paris, ending at the Trocadéro, and scheduled to last over three and a half hours.
Initially, 600,000 people were supposed to be able to attend the parade. Their distribution was known for a long time: a minority of seats, on the “lower docks” and seven bridges, closest to the ceremony, were sold by the Olympic organizing committee (Cojo), up to €2,700 each. In contrast, the vast majority of spectators wanting to attend the ceremony from the “upper docks” were admitted for free.
By the end of January, the official capacity was reduced to approximately 300,000 people in total. On Tuesday, this distribution was clarified during the hearing by the Interior Minister to the senators: 104,000 people on the lower docks; 222,000 on the upper docks. For a total of 326,000 people, well above the seating capacity of Olympic stadiums, around 80,000 seats.
However, the image of inclusive and “popular” games has once again been tarnished. The Interior Minister declared that while tickets for the upper docks remained free, they will not be distributed directly to spectators, but “through partners”. Specifically, only “trusted third parties” will be able to allow people of their choice to register, in the hopes of being selected by lottery for a seat.
In addition to the 326,000 spectators on the docks, according to the estimates of the authorities, around 200,000 people could watch the ceremony from their homes, as they live on the banks of the Seine. On July 26, 45,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized in the Île-de-France region. The three intervention forces (Raid, BRI, GIGN) will be deployed on or near the river, and the airspace will be closed within a radius of 150 kilometers around the capital.
This heightened security dimension of the opening ceremony was evident as the Interior Minister was accompanied, in the Senate, by the directors general of the national gendarmerie, national police, civil security, director general of internal security, and the police prefects of Paris and the Île-de-France region.
