Paris Olympics opening ceremony on river Seine will last nearly 4 hours
With sunset and moonlight gleaming on the river, the grandiose opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics will last nearly four hours.
A total of 205 delegations will parade on more than 80 boats on the Seine. The ceremony will drift slowly from east to west, bridge to bridge, snaking six kilo‐ meters (3.7 miles) from Pont d'Austerlitz to Pont d'Iéna.
Proceedings begin at 3:45 p.m. and finish at 11:15 p.m. local time with artistic performances preceding the athletes' parade.
The athletes will motor past about 320,000 fans wedged in behind security cordons on upper and lower tiers on the em‐ bankments. Others will gaze at giant screens beaming images of the ambitious ceremony.
"For one evening, the Seine will be transformed into a giant open‐air ceremony," Paris Games director of ceremonies Marie‐Catherine Ettori said dur‐ ing a media briefing on Thurs‐ day.
Once the 10,500 athletes have disembarked from their boats, the final part of the ceremony takes place at the Trocadéro plaza overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Amid the anticipation of seeing something so unique, there are tensions surrounding the safety of the ceremony heading into the Games starting on July 26.
Late last month, France raised its security readiness to the high‐ est level after a deadly attack at a Russian concert hall and the Is‐ lamic State's claim of responsi‐ bility.
French President Emmanuel
Macron struck a cautious note this week when he said the un‐ precedented open‐air event, which is expected to bring 100 world leaders to the embank‐ ments, could be shifted to a more conventional opening ceremony at the Stade de France, the na‐ tional stadium, if the security threat is deemed too high.
Without disputing what Macron said, France's Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa‐Castéra and others remained optimistic the show will go on the Seine.
"We are heavily working on plan A which remains the central scenario and the very, very dom‐ inant scenario," Oudéa‐Castéra said at a " 100 Days To Go "Olympic event on Wednesday. "We keep working on that fan‐ tastic ceremony on the River Seine."