France_382

Rendering of the Paris 2024 opening ceremony on the Seine river.

Paris 2024 organizers are expecting at least 600,000 to attend the Summer Olympics opening ceremony on the Seine as athletes and delegations will sail along the river to kick off the Games.

Some 160 boats will set off on July 26 from the Pont d’Austerlitz for a six-kilometer journey to the Pont d’Iena in an event Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee, described as “unique and spectacular.”

“We’ve been working on it for the past 12 months, it’s the result of a collective effort with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and all authorities. It has to be spectacular,” Estanguet told Reuters in an interview.

“It will be the first time people have free access to the opening ceremony, and not just in a stadium. It will also be a popular event.”

While the lower part of the river bank will be subject to ticketing, there will be free access to the upper part with spectators able to see holograms on the water, dancers on the roofs of nearby buildings and aerial shows.

Some 80 giant screens will also be installed along the route.

“The Games is a unique, once-in-a lifetime experience. We want people to feel it. (The boats) will pass along the iconic landmarks of Paris - Notre Dame, the Orsay and Louvre museums, the Pont Neuf (Paris’s oldest bridge), the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, the Eiffel Tower,” Estanguet added.