2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Festivité Chapter)

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics took place on 26 July 2024 across Paris, beginning at 19:30 CEST (17:30 UTC). As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings included an artistic program showcasing the culture of the host country and city, the parade of athletes and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. The Games were formally opened by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

For the first time in modern Olympic history, the opening ceremony was held outside of a stadium, with most of the procedures and performances taking place in several Paris landmarks and across the Seine River and most of the official protocols taking place at a temporary stadium in the Jardins du Trocadéro. The programme consisted of twelve chapters and featured a mix of live performances with filmed segments and animated sequences.

The ceremony received a mixed reception, with many praising the performances of Gojira, Aya Nakamura, Celine Dion and Lady Gaga, while criticism was directed at the length, poor weather conditions, technical issues, and some elements of the production itself.[2][3][4][5][6] Most French newspapers praised it, while conservative and Christian French commentators rejected it as 'woke propaganda'.[7]

On 26 July 2024, the day of the opening ceremony, a series of arson attacks damaged the lines of the French railway system.[8] International and domestic rail services were widely disrupted,[9] with around 800,000 passengers affected.[10] There was also an attempted attack on LGV Sud-Est line, though it was interrupted by TGV maintenance workers who happened to be on site.[11]

Progamme

Ch. Title Procedure time (CEST : UTC+2)

1 Prologue 19:30–19:45

2 Enchanté 19:45–19:55

3 Synchronicité 19:55–20:00

4 Liberté, égalité, fraternité 20:00-20:10

5 Sororité 20:10–20:25

6 Sportivité 20:25–21:40

7 Festivité 21:40–22:50

8 Obscurité 21:50–22:20

9 Solidarité 21:50–22:20

10 Solennité 22:20–23:00

11 Éternité (epilogue) 23:00–23:30

Festivité

The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower

The eighth sequence, Festivité, started with a tribute to French fashion on the Passerelle Debilly's red carpet. The parade continued on with the New Zealander delegation to the Australian and the American delegations, as both Brisbane, Australia and Los Angeles, U.S.A. are the next Olympic Games hosts in 2032 and 2028 respectively. The masked torchbearer crossed the Passerelle Debilly, while a live video feed highlighted the welcoming committee in Tahiti, where the surfing events would be held.

A tribute to the European Union was introduced by "The Final Countdown" and a drone show around the Eiffel Tower forming the 12 stars of the EU flag, and featured drag queens including Nicky Doll and dancers including Germain Louvet, Electro Street, and the Mazelfreten collective, continuing on the waterlogged red carpet of the Debilly footbridge, as well as a barge with an LED dancefloor, to Eurodance tracks such as "Freed from Desire," "Stereo Love," "It's Rainy Day" and "Sandstorm." Philippe Katerine, nearly nude and painted as a blue Dionysus, performed "Nu," lying at the center of a long table with the drag queens posed in a manner resembling a bacchanalian feast. The parade boats culminated with the French delegation riding a boat on the Seine.

Controversies

Drag queen segment

The "Festivité" segment contained a scene of drag queens that was an homage to Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper, though not receiving confirmation of such by the organizers or Philippe Katerine who played Dionysus, it was also speculated that is could have been inspired on the Feast of the Gods painted by Jan van Biljert.[151] Due to the comparison to a religious work, the segment was criticised by conservative personalities, Catholics,[152] and other Christians as blasphemic, making a mockery of Christianity, or due to anti-drag sentiment.[146][153] Jewish commentator Dr. Eli David called it an "outrageous insult to Jesus and Christianity" and Tesla CEO Elon Musk called it "extremely disrespectful to Christians."[154] Australia's former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack invoked the memory of Christian Australian soldiers who died defending France.[155] French far-right politician Marion Maréchal said "it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority".[152] Hungarian diplomat Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen[156] and American conservative politicians Marco Rubio[157] and Mike Johnson also criticized the sequence.[158] Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called it "sleazy" and said that "Opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians across the world was a really bad start."[159] China Central Television (CCTV) commentators fell silent during the segment, but the broadcaster did not edit the scenes from subsequent airings: some Chinese netizens praised the segments and acknowledged the rarity of such content being aired by CCTV due to China's anti-LGBT policies, while one posting of the scene on Weibo was captioned "[the] French version of The Breaking Ice".[160]

Jolly responded to the criticism in a press conference, stating that "We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that. In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn't have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey."[146]

On 28 July, organisers issued an apology for the performance, stating that "there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group."[159]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Summer_Olympics_opening_ceremony

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DISCLAIMER: The opening ceremony was scheduled to start at 7:30 PM Paris Time. We have created THREE chart events for the entire ceremony. One for the beginning of the entire event, set at 7:30 PM, which is very important as all initiation markers, as it sets the scene for the scripted simulation we are about to witness. Another for 8:00 PM or the Liberté, égalité, fraternité chapter. And lastly, we created a chart for the Festivité chapter scheduled for 9:40 PM.

The chart below correlates with the Festivité chapter, scheduled for 9:40 PM.

With the exception of AC, MC and to a lesser extent moon, all the symbols will remain the same throughout the ceremony event. Note the MOON, AC and DC to see symbolic differences between the various time point. Gaia