Celine Dion and Lady Gaga face an opening ceremony washout as Paris Olympics chief Tony Estanguet conceded that contingency plans may have to take effect given frequent rain expected for tonight’s extravaganza down the Seine.
Plans for the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics – the first time a Summer Games will start outside a stadium – have been a closely guarded secret. Around 6,000-7,000 athletes are set to sail down a six kilometre (four-mile) stretch of the river Seine from the Austerlitz bridge in the east to the Eiffel Tower, on 85 barges and boats.
There is intense speculation the show will end with a duet by Dion and Gaga, who are expected to perform Édith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose.
Officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, have refused to be drawn on the details.
“Apparently she [Dion] has arrived in Paris, it’s great!” he told French television channel France 2 this week. “I would be immensely happy if she could be at this opening ceremony, like all our compatriots I will not reveal anything.”
But the weather has been the organisers’ worst fear. Estanguet confessed this week to having consulted the forecast for tonight’s ceremony “more than 400 times”.
His prayers have not been answered and frequent showers are expected throughout the three-hour and 45-minute inauguration of the Games.
“I woke up and popped my head of the window and it’s not looking great,” Estanguet told France Inter.
State weather authority Meteo France’s forecast has predicted “mild to moderate rain this evening in Paris” while La Chaine Meteo was far gloomier, saying there was a 70-80 per cent chance of “moderate to heavy” rain.
Estanguet added: “We’ve designed the show so that it can be held in the rain. It may be a bit different, but some people who are used to doing shows also say that it adds a very nice atmosphere to the image. So we’ll see what happens. What’s certain is that we’ll adapt.”
“We were prepared for every possible scenario. A major heatwave, rain. So we’ll adapt. The models are very, very unstable. It’s true that the closer we get, the more the model looks like confirming rain this evening, so once again, we’re going to adapt. It’s going to be a good time. It’s going to be a great party. We’ll be launching these games that we’ve been waiting so long to see.”
2024-07-26T12:08:23Z dg43tfdfdgfd