Less than two months before the fateful date, the distribution begins! 326,000 people in total are expected on the quays of the Seine for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a little more than 100,000 places will be paid seats installed on the lower quays, and the rest 220,000 are free places, on invitations positioned on the high platforms. Among these 220,000 guests, 55,000 will be invited by Paris town hall.
The municipality has decided to distribute these places to certain groups in particular.those who would not otherwise have been able to go to the opening ceremony” explains Emmanuel Grégoire, 1st deputy at Paris town hall. The city therefore proceeded using its contact files. The “Facile Famille” file, for example, made it possible to identify households from working-class neighborhoods with the most unfavorable family quotient . A target “who often does not go on vacation and therefore will be in Paris at that time“, adds Pierre Rabadan, deputy in charge of sports, the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Among the other audiences targeted by the invitations, young people, through homes and other initiatives for Parisian youth, sports clubs linked to the capital, traders and other local residents affected by organizational difficulties during the Games. As well as 2,800 agents from the city of Paris.
A multi-step process
To ensure that no place is lost and that the stands are full on July 26, the distribution of places has already started. Nearly 14,000 emails were sent at the start of the week to alert lucky guests that they would soon have to register, them and up to 3 people to accompany them. A procedure to be completed from June 10 and within 4 days. At the end of this first stage, a second wave of invitations will be launched depending on the number of places still to be given, and then a third and final wave will take place at the beginning of July.
All guests will then be validated by security services. As for D-Day, the lucky ones will be able to enjoy the show on the Seine, but also catering possibilities and for the others, no worries, the ceremony “is above all an audiovisual production” remind Parisian elected officials, and everyone will be able to fully enjoy it in front of their television.
