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For more than 6 months, the City of Paris celebrated the Games with an extensive programme that combined sport, culture, art and history. Paris demonstrated how a major event can be a catalyst for changes in host cities. The whole city became a festival, with multiple sites, bringing sport closer to people, in all districts of the city as well as showcasing the City of Light to the entire world.

Beyond the ephemeral celebration, beyond the feeling of “community”, these celebrations were an opportunity to raise awareness on societal and environmental challenges and to give to the citizens of Paris and visitors a long-lasting tangible and intangible legacy.

In terms of duration, location, and audience, the several-month event included an ever-growing number of sites and free access given to activities. Paris perfectly met the specifications for the festivalisation of sports events.

The Olympic Games are the biggest sport event in the world, an event like no other, in terms of preparation time, number of athletes and competitions, venues, visitors and spectators, volunteers, etc. Paris integrated the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games into in a single sequence, under the same banner, making it a unique event (in both senses of the term) of unequaled dimensions. Paris calibrated a continuous program of activities starting well before the Olympic Games and extending beyond the Paralympic Games.

To ensure that everyone found something of interest in these Games, multiple components of the programme were designed to attract diverse audiences: sports fans and non-fans, Parisians and visitors, young and old people, families, groups and individuals, ticket holders and those without. The concept behind “Paris celebrates the Games” was not only to have sports facilities linked to the Games throughout the city but to adorn Paris with the look of Games and make the entire city a sports field, a playground, a museum, an artistic scene, and a party scene! Absolutely everywhere throughout the city, Parisians and visitors alike had the opportunity to live the Games experience outside the competition sites, including in more remote and lower-income areas, an aim which was at the heart of the whole concept.

Let’s explore the various dimensions of “Paris celebrates the Games”, always keeping in mind that there are links and bridges between the different categories of activities offered and that none is exclusive of the other, and that all are free and open to all.

sport for all

The Games are primarily a celebration of sport and sport-related values and benefits. In Paris, the idea was not only to watch sport, but also to discover and try sport and compete as a sport practitioner! Sports facilities were set up in all districts of Paris; as of May, streets were open to school children with athletics tracks or hopscotch games made available; the shores of the canals and the Seine were equipped with various beach sports zones, swimming areas, and proposed fun activities such as a zipline, pétanque, water sports, Tai Chi classes, trampoline, etc. Sixteen festival sites including sports initiations, activities, and giant screens, were distributed throughout the city as invitations for people to play sport and experience the Games. Food, shows, concerts, open air cinema and awareness-raising corners were part of the overall concept. From 22 June to 13 July, Parisians could take part in their “own” district Olympiads. With 7 sports and parasports to compete in – laser run, basketball 3×3, boccia, table tennis, 60-meter sprint, break-dancing, 50-meter freestyle swimming – Parisians could experience 30 sports venues and competed both for the enjoyment of sport and to win tickets for Games events! All local actors (schools, libraries, associations) and Paris’ civil servants were engaged throughout the summer!

culture for all

The Games are traditionally accompanied by the Cultural Olympiad, a unique opportunity to showcase iconic cultural places, local talents, and creativity in the host city. The vitality of culture is the pulse of a society, and there is no doubt that Paris is a city of culture, and that artistic expression is inherent to its identity. According to Carine Rolland, Deputy Mayor in charge of culture and the 15-minute city, Paris transformed into a vast artistic scene offering a free, unique festival open to the public and a programme conducive to bringing people together. Poetry, danse, urban arts, music, theatre, street and live performances were open to the public! The visual arts took over the streets of the capital, and exhibitions linked to the Olympics, the history of Paris or that of sport, the body or fashion, sport in literature, etc., multiplied in the museums in the Paris Musées network. And culture being inseparable from history and memory, the city celebrated, between the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of Paris through a cultural and memorial event in the city’s streets as well as in the sites of the festivities.

a society open to all

A major sport event such as the Olympic & Paralympic Games is a unique opportunity to promote “living togetherness”, to strengthen the social fabric and to generate a feeling of belonging to a community. Obviously, attending a sport event as a fan, watching a competition in a public zone, attending an artistic show or the Torch relay creates collective and individual emotions. Beyond these fleeting moments, creating a community, creating a society also means encouraging reflection on the challenges of today and tomorrow, and the City of Paris decided to open, for the duration of the Games, “totemic» sites that are bearers of values and meaning, which demonstrate a singular spirit and collective commitment. The six highlighted themes are identity markers of Paris and contributed to raising awareness on fundamental subjects such as youth, solidarity, climate change, social and solidarity economy, and gender equality.

All these values and challenges were integrated within the Paris Games festival venues. All sites open to the public ensured accessibility for all (in communication as well as in logistical aspects and prepared in collaboration with the expertise of six disability associations); sustainability (mostly local and organic food, elimination of single-use plastic, free access to tap water, reusable catering containers; inclusiveness and social responsibility (professional integration in the context of site maintenance, promotion of the benefits of physical activity and gender equality.)

conclusion

A wide-open city reinforcing the vision of “Games wide open”! The challenge of a festive and inclusive city, with open sites promoting accessibility and sustainability, has more than largely been achieved. Transforming an entire city into a festival for several weeks, for the benefit not only of visitors from around the world, but also, and above all, for the inhabitants of all neighbourhoods of the capital will undoubtedly inspire cities hosting major sporting events. But beyond that, the time has come to promote and perpetuate a positive and living heritage, for the benefit of the citizens.