PARIS 2024 | Olympic Games Opening Ceremony | 2025
The Day the Olympics Ditched the Stadium and Became the City Itself / PARIS 2024 "Olympic Games Opening Ceremony"
No stadium for the opening ceremony. Instead, the stage was 6 kilometers of the Seine River. On 7/26/2024, the athletes traveled down the river on 160 boats. 300,000 people stood along the banks, and 1.5 billion were watching on TV.
The problem
It's said the idea started in 2019, when artistic director Thierry Reboul was walking along the Seine. Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, had said from the very beginning that he wanted to break the mold. The production budget was on the same scale as the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, and it was created by Paname24, a group formed by five major French event companies working together.
The insight
In an era when the world feels divided, the idea was to give public space back to everyone. It wasn't about showing off national power — the concept came from simply walking through the city, and that idea was carried straight through into the final result. It's not about what happens inside a box, but about how you use the city itself.
The idea
With Notre-Dame, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop, the athletes traveled down the river. The bridges and embankments became the stage, and across twelve chapters, French art, fashion, and music unfolded. Lady Gaga and Céline Dion also performed, and 3,000 people moved throughout the city.
What happened
It won the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category at Cannes Lions 2025, and also took the Grand Winner title at the Clio Awards. It drew an average of 23.2 million viewers in France and 28.6 million in the US, marking some of the highest numbers for an Olympic opening ceremony in recent years.
Afterthought
The moment it stepped outside the stadium, the opening ceremony stopped being something you watch and became something the whole city takes part in. An idea that came from a walk turned into a 6-kilometer river. The idea that great ideas live in the city, not the conference room — turns out that was true.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2025
