The organisers of Friday's opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games – the first time the event will be held outside a stadium – have provided teasers for their spectacular plans but have remained tight-lipped over giving any specifics of what the world can expect to see.
The team behind putting on the gala opening along the iconic river Seine have been hinting over the past few months about what can be expected, but have flatly refused to give any specifics.
However, based on public statements and press leaks, there is some idea of what the concept for the grand opening will be.
Compared with the muted opening of the Covid-struck Tokyo Olympics that were postponed to 2021, spectators can expect the Paris games to begin with a bang.
'Games wide open'
Instead of using the main athletics stadium for the opening parade, as is customary, organisers have moved the event outside and into the heart of the capital – in keeping with their motto "Games Wide Open".
Between 6,000 and 7,000 athletes are set to sail down a six-kilometre stretch of the river Seine from the Austerlitz bridge in the east of the city to the Eiffel Tower, on 85 barges and boats.
Some 300,000 people are set to watch in person from specially built stands, where tickets have sold for up to €2,700, on the riverbanks for free and from overlooking balconies and apartments.
Earlier this month, chief organiser Tony Estanguet remarked: "Organising a ceremony on the Seine is not easier than doing it in a stadium ... but it has more punch."
Because of the size and complexity of the parade, it has never been rehearsed in full.
That's entertainment
The show has been designed by theatre director Thomas Jolly, a 42-year-old known for reviving hit rock-opera musical "Starmania".
He brought on board a creative team that includes the writer of French TV series "Call My Agent", Fanny Herrero, as well as best-selling author Leila Slimani and renowned historian Patrick Boucheron.
The show has been split into 12 different sections, with around 3,000 dancers, singers and entertainers positioned on both banks of the river, the bridges and nearby monuments.
A tribute to Notre-Dame cathedral – in the process of being renovated after a devastating fire in 2019 – is guaranteed, possibly with dancers on its scaffolding.
Starting at 19:30 local time, two thirds of the ceremony will take place in daylight, then dusk – Jolly is hoping for one of Paris's stunning summer sunsets – and will end with a light show.
The music will be a mix of classical, traditional chanson française, as well as rap and electro.
Franco-Malian R&B star Aya Nakamura is to perform despite criticism from far-right politicians, including Marine Le Pen who suggested an appearance by her would "humiliate" France.
French electro superstars Daft Punk said they had turned down an invitation to play, while globe-trotting French DJ David Guetta has been overlooked – much to his irritation.
Celebration of diversity
Asked to sum up his message for the event last week, Jolly said it was "love".
Despite the risk of irking conservatives, he said his work would be a celebration of cultural, linguistic, religious and sexual diversity in France and around the world.
"I think the people who want to live together in this diversity, this otherness, are much more numerous, but we make less noise," he said.
It is fair to assume it will be nothing like the widely panned, retro-styled opening ceremony of last year's rugby World Cup, which featured a succession of French clichés from baguettes to berets and the Eiffel Tower.
Jolly's team is also wary of over-emphasising France's historic contribution to the development of democracy and the concept of universal human rights thanks to its Enlightenment philosophers and 1789 Revolution.
So don't expect a three-hour tribute to French greatness to rival the nationalistic pageantry seen at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Big moments?
With so much still under wraps, that's hard to predict.
Jolly has strongly hinted that a submersible or submarine could emerge from the waters of the Seine at some point.
"You have the sky, you have bridges, you have water, you have banks, you have so much space to make poetry," Jolly told reporters last week. "So why not under the river also?"
Thankfully, hundreds of dancers who were threatening to strike during the opening ceremony have called off their protest after receiving a new pay offer.
Some of them had protested on Monday during rehearsals by the river Seine by stopping and holding their fists aloft for eight minutes.
The biggest moment of all might simply be the end if everyone gets home safely.
The ceremony has given French police cold sweats ever since it was unveiled in 2021 because of the difficulty of securing so many people over such a vast urban area.
However, one-off payments of up to €1,900 have been agreed for police and municipal workers in Paris.
Around 45,000 members of the security forces will be on duty during the Games.
(With newswires)
