Paris 2024: What to expect from the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games
The artistic director who brought us Celine Dion singing Edith Piaf's classic, L'Hymne à l'Amour halfway up the Eiffel Tower at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, is also heading the Closing Ceremony.
So, what can we expect from the mind of Thomas Jolly to celebrate 17 days of epic competition across France's capital, and beyond? How will he combine the ecstatic atmosphere plus the solemnity of the official transfer of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to the next host, LA 2028?
Let's start with how the traditional template of an Olympic Games Closing Ceremony usually unfolds.
Patrouille de France fly over the Eiffel Tower during the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
A big old party atmosphere celebrates the achievements of athletes and the success of the host city as the Olympic flag is ceremonially transferred to the next hosts. And to round it all off? Fireworks. Of course, fireworks.
Apart from that, each host nation can celebrate however they see fit.
Celebratory moments from previous Olympic Games have seen a reunion of the Spice Girls, the British pop group arriving into the arena standing atop the famous London black cab taxis singing 'Spice up your Life' at London 2012.
At Sydney 2000, Australian popstar Kylie Minogue brought the curtain down on the first Games of the new millennium with a rendition of ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' clad in a bright pink showgirl costume, complete with feathers.
More poignant moments have included Canada's tribute to Indigenous people at Montreal 1976 with the Closing Ceremony including hundreds of performers from their communities, while to introduce the next host city after Los Angeles 1984 a traditional Buchaechum dance was performed at Seoul 1988.
The Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996.
Both Atlanta 1996 and London 2012 featured the haunting John Lennon song 'Imagine', the former sung by an emotional Stevie Wonder, the latter, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir performing alongside the Liverpool Signing Choir, inclusive for the hard of hearing.
Jolly included it ahead of Paris 2024 too, on Friday 26 July, this time by French singer Juliette Armanet while on a barge on the river Seine, a first for the Opening Ceremony to be held outside a stadium.
But what can we expect from Jolly and his creative team for the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 11 August?
Olympic Games Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony
The name given by Jolly to the closing ceremony is a cryptic. 'Records'.
With Olympic ceremonies a closely-guarded secret, this is necessarily vague. What we do know is that the venue hosting the ceremony will be the iconic 80,000-seater Stade de France, and that it will be transformed into a gigantic concert hall.
More than 100 performers, acrobats, dancers, and circus artists will join world-renowned singers in various musical performances.
Part of the show will take place in the air, accompanied by spectacular lighting effects and the flair of the French in the costumes, with the overall effect taking spectators – both those at home and in person – "on a journey into the past, to the origins of the Games, but also into the future, and ultimately to a timeless universe". Crikey.
"On 11 August 2024, the Olympic Games will be over, and the Olympic flame will be extinguished," said Jolly. "That moment will remind us just how precious these Olympic Games are - a unique monument to a shared experience - and therefore fragile.
"The Olympic Games already disappeared after antiquity and were re-founded in France by Pierre De Coubertin. We want to celebrate, but consciously. This moment of celebration will also be an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the Olympic Games in our society."
Jolly describes the show as "very visual", "acrobatic" and "operatic", with a "great visual fresco".
Mind you, he will have to go some to match what the stadium has delivered so far during the XXXIII Olympiad.
A general view of the Stade de France during the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
On day one, the French men's rugby sevens side won the host nation's first Olympic gold medal facilitated by a performance for the ages by union icon Antoine Dupont, with the crowd playing their part with a spontaneous rendition of La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France.
An indication of the special feel-good Olympic Games to come, the French squad took to an altogether different formation mid pitch to perform a choreographed dance routine to the amusement of themselves and the crowd.
Or how about Julien Alfred who won Saint Lucia's first ever Olympic medal, and gold at that, in the women's 100m.
Same for Thea LaFond, who won gold in women's triple jump, Dominica's first Olympic medal. Population 72,000, even less than the number of people watching her special feat in person.
So Jolly has it all to do, but no one knows that better than him.
"I've designed a show in which the Olympic Games disappear once again, and someone comes along and founds them. It's a very visual, very choreographic, very acrobatic show with an operatic dimension to give a great visual fresco and say goodbye to athletes from all over the world.
"Together, let's make this evening a memorable and conscious celebration, honouring the past and embracing the future."