France Downsizes Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony Crowd

French Interior minister Gerald Darmanin told French TV Channel France 2 on Wednesday that some 300,000 spectators will be able to attend the July 26 Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Summer Games in Paris, about half the size of what was originally planned.

The show on the River Seine will mark the first time that an opening ceremony is held outside of a usual stadium setting. The athletes will be paraded through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 3.7-mile route. Both banks of the river will be lined by spectators, behind multiple security cordons, with tens of thousands of police officers and soldiers deployed.

Darmanin said current plans would allow for 100,000 paying spectators with a waterside view, and more than 220,000 people with free tickets on the river’s upper embankments. Organizers had originally estimated that around 600,000 spectators could watch the ceremony.

Michel Cadot, who heads a Games coordination committee and is head of the National Sports Agency, recently said the number of spectators for the Opening Ceremony was still under discussion. Organizers initially announced plans for 600,000 people to attend in person – most of them for free.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in his New Year’s address that the Opening Ceremony extravaganza could be moved if France is hit in the run-up by extremist attacks. Cadot said contingency plans entail an “adaptation of the concept on the Seine.”

“I know that we have the best security forces in the world and we’ll be able to show that France is capable of winning medals and, above all, of hosting the world without any problems,” Darmanin said.

Paris is on track to host this year’s Games as all the infrastructures will be ready in time for the extravaganza despite some minor hiccups. The athletes village will be delivered on March 1 by Solideo, the public company in charge of infrasctructures, its president Nicolas Ferrand told a panel of French senators recently.

Ferrand said there are minor delays on three specific venues, including the Village where “some 500 beds that were expected for the Olympic village will only (be) delivered during the months of April”, a few weeks behind schedule. Also running a few weeks behind schedule is renovation of the Grand Palais monument in central Paris that will host fencing and taekwondo.