athletes, artists, surprises… everything you need to know about the parade and the show on Saturday around the Arc de Triomphe – Libération

A last one with fanfare, on one of the most prestigious avenues in the world. Then the party will be over, for good this time. Saturday September 14, on the Champs-Elysées, a final tribute will be paid to those who made the Olympic and Paralympic Games a success: to the volunteers, the organization and the athletes, of course. Wanted by Emmanuel Macron for “extend this moment”, this celebration “open to all”, dixit the Elysée, will end with a show at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe. Libé takes stock of what we know about this “parade of champions”.

Parade, podium and XXL stage

Each ceremony of the Olympic and Paralympic Games had an acronym: CR1 for the opening of the Olympics, CR2 for the closing one, CR3 for the opening of the Paralympics, and so on. Saturday’s, once again organized by Thierry Reboul, the director of Games ceremonies, was no exception: “Between us, we call it CR5, to say that we are going to try to apply the same ingredients to this day as for the other four ceremonies,” he said during a press conference this Wednesday, September 11.

For this “CR5” therefore, Reboul and his teams saw the big picture, at the request of the Elysée. Along the Champs-Elysées, a “giant podium which will be almost 300 meters long will be installed”, from avenue Georges V to “practically the Place de l’Etoile”. From 4 p.m. Saturday, and until around 6 p.m., between 8,000 and 10,000 people are expected to march. We will see it pass “those who made the Games”, namely: volunteers, members of the organization, communities, state services and obviously French athletes and their staff.

For the moment, we are talking about a little more than 180 Olympians who responded to the invitation (including 78 medalists), including Teddy Riner and the French judo team, the Lebrun brothers in table tennis, fencer Manon Apithy-Brunet, Antoine Dupont and the rugby players or even Léon Marchand and the swimmers. The players of most of the team sports medalists should, however, be missing since all or almost all of them have resumed their club season. At least 130 Paralympic athletes will also parade, including around fifty medalists.

Everyone will therefore converge towards the Arc de Triomphe around which a giant stage (400 meters in perimeter) and 360 degrees will be installed. The medalists will be decorated by Emmanuel Macron and will receive the Legion of Honor. A handful of athletes who are members of the “Army of Champions” will also participate in the daily lighting ceremony of the Flame of the Unknown Soldier.

A “best-of” of ceremonies

The honored athletes, “a very great show” must be held, always around the Arc de Triomphe. “The theme is very simple,” says Thierry Reboul: “We released four albums [les quatre cérémonies, ndlr], and when we release four albums in the music world, we make a best-of. So we are going to offer a selection of ceremonies, mainly musically speaking.” We are promised “original forms”, and “live show” and a “very large concert, equally visual and auditory”.

We do not yet know who Céline Dion, Martin Solveig, Lady Gaga or Christine and the Queens will be present. “We have to finish the line up in the coming hours, we will probably decide to communicate about it then, but we still need a little time to finalize it,” said the director of ceremonies. The show is expected to last from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., before a DJ set “from the Arc de Triomphe” doesn’t take over.

70,000 tickets reservable for free

This Wednesday at 4 p.m. the ticket office of the “parade of champions” on the parade.paris2024.org website. Tickets are free and have only been put in place for security reasons, in order to manage flows (a free ticket office had also been opened to access the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries garden). In total, 30,000 places are available along the Champs-Elysées and 40,000 around the Arc de Triomphe, the equivalent of a full French stadium in Olympic version. The principle is simple: first come, first served (limited to four places per person).

A cost shared between France TV and sponsors

Organizing such a ceremony has a cost. During the presentation of this grand parade to journalists, no figures were communicated. The organization simply explained that France TV co-organized (and therefore financed) the show part. In an article published this Wednesday, the chained duck speaks of a total cost of five million euros, partly financed by the audiovisual group “who will draw on their advertising revenue to pay the artists present”. The Paris town hall will take care of the logistical part (giant screens, sound system, etc.), and the rest “will be provided by sponsors”, it the Duck.