It is a message that will be visible throughout the city via posters and banners: “Lille, proud to host the Olympic Games”. The city is preparing to receive 100,000 visitors every day during the two weeks of competition, from July 27 to August 11. The metropolis will be the host community with 52 basketball and handball matches planned at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d’Ascq during this fortnight.
Olympic weekend
An Olympic weekend will first be organized on June 22 and 23. On Saturday, a village of practices and initiations to around thirty disciplines will take place on the Champ de Mars esplanade, next to the citadel. Several running races will be organized, including a very symbolic one for beginners: 2,024 meters! On Sunday, 4 sports will be discovered in 4 artistic venues: e-sport at the Tri Postal, boxing at the Hospice Comtesse, breakdancing at the Opera and fencing at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, mirroring which will be done at the Grand Palais, in Paris, a museum which will host this same discipline during the Olympics.
Lille Town Hall
Parade of 1,500 athletes on July 2
On July 2, the Olympic flame will arrive in the capital of Flanders. A huge parade of 1,500 athletes, members of the city’s 200 sports clubswill be organized on rue Faidherbe and Grand Place, in particular.
A city in the colors of the Olympics
Gradually, between now and this summer, banners and posters will be installed in the city, in the colors of Paris 2024: purple, pink, blue and gold. There you will also find the drawings of the citadel and the belfry of the chamber of commerce. On July 14, the fireworks will be in the colors of the Olympics but you should not expect to see rockets drawing Olympic rings in the sky nor to see these rings on the statue of the goddess ! We thought about it at the town hall but it’s impossible. The rings are a registered logo which belongs solely to the IOC and the Paris 2024 organizing committee. On the other hand, black, yellow, green, blue and red, the colors of the 5 Olympic rings, will cover the Grand-Place and that of the Republic during the two weeks of competition starting July 26.
Live together
If the city was unable to obtain authorization from the former prefect of the North to set up a fan zone, it expects an air of celebration during this event. “For us, successful games will be games where there will be a party, where people will be able to play sports in the city, the bars, restaurants and shops will be full and all this without violenceexplains Martine Aubry, the mayor (PS) of Lille. Every time we hosted, whether it was the Rugby World Cup or the Davis Cup, everyone told us: we had an extraordinary welcome in Lille. There, it’s going to be great for basketball and handball.”.
Stéphane Barbereau
Later terraces
Exceptionally, the closing hours of bar and restaurant terraces will be extended until midnight during the two weeks of the Olympics (usually they close at midnight only from Thursday to Saturday evening, otherwise it’s 11 p.m.). Free kits in the colors of the Olympic Games will be distributed to merchants so that they can decorate their windows.
The total cost of these festivities for the city amounts to €150,000. Many events will be financially supported by private sponsorship: Decathon and the Caisse d’Epargne Hauts-de-France.
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