2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony: Public screenings in EU cities

The Old Continent gets ready for the largest festival of sports

The 2024 Olympic Games are set to kick off tomorrow, 26 July, in the French capital Paris. They promise to be unusual thanks to the exemplary commitment to sustainability and decarbonization on the part of the organizers, but what will be unusual is also the opening ceremony.

This will be the first time in Olympic history that the opening ceremony will be held outside of a stadium and out in the actual hosting city. This outdoor concept makes Paris 2024 the largest opening ceremony in terms of audience and geographical coverage. The event will start at 19:30 (CET) and is expected to last for three hours!

The aim of this unusual idea, which has been causing some headaches with Paris residents in recent days due to the closing of streets and change in traffic, is actually to bring the Games and the Olympic Spirit closer to the people by trying to include as many of them as possible as first-hand spectators.

According to the organizers, some 600,000 people will be able to enjoy the opening ceremony in person, which is unprecedented. There were 222,000 free tickets available to watch the floating parade (consisting of 100 boats with all the countries’ teams) from the upper banks of the Seine, in addition to 104,000 paid tickets on the lower quays. This marks the first Opening Ceremony where most spectators will not pay an admission fee – another historic milestone for Paris 2024.

Still, Paris is a large metropolis and even living in it may not be enough to observe the festivities first-hand, which is why, the city authorities have also made sure to install 80 giant screens throughout the French capital so that residents can leave their homes and get to watch the event live in the company of their neighbours. That is sure to create festive local nodes as well.

What’s more, every arondissement in Paris will have its own fan zone, a concept that’s become popular in recent years during football events, such as the World Cup and Euro Cup. Here’s a list of all the fan zones in Paris:

• Parc Rives de Seine and Quartier Jeunes (1st arrondissement)
• Fabrique de la Solidarité (2nd arrondissement)
• Parvis de l’Hôtel de Ville (4th arrondissement)
• Arènes de Lutèce (5th arrondissement)
• Place Saint-Sulpice (6th arrondissement)
• Parc Monceau (8th arrondissement)
• Mairie (9th arrondissement)
• Canal St-Martin and the Grange aux Belles district (10th arrondissement)
• Allée Vivaldi (12th arrondissement)
• Parc de Choisy (13th arrondissement)
• Centre sportif Elisabeth (14th arrondissement)
• Parc Sainte-Périne (16th arrondissement)
• Parc Clichy Batignolles Martin Luther-King (17th arrondissement)
• Jardins d’Éole and the Square Léon Serpollet (18th arrondissement)
• Place Stalingrad, the Bassin de la Villette (19th arrondissement)
• Complexe sportif Louis Lumière (20th arrondissement)

That means that if you’re in Paris, you’ll never be too far away from an opportunity to join a public festivity and collective viewing of the grand spectacle.

Actually, all in all, nearly 200 free celebration sites will be open to the general public throughout France. But

What about the people who are not in Paris or France?

We can’t compile a listing for every city or country that may organize a fan zone and public viewing but here are some places in Europe where you can catch up with the opening ceremony in the company of other sports enthusiasts.

Berlin is inviting residents and guests of the city to come gather at Cassiopeia Sommergarten for the opening ceremony of the Games. People in Luxembourg City can head to Place de la Constitution and those who happen to be in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia can dive into the Olympic Spirit with fellow viewers at the Toplocentrala cultural centre in Southern Park.

What if your city has not organized a public viewing though? Well, then you still have the option to follow the entire live ceremony from your TV, laptop, tablet or phone screen, hopefully in the company of your friends or relatives.

Here’s a list of all the broadcasters licensed to show the Games live.