Closing ceremony « An exceptional show »: the event was unanimously praised by the press

The Paralympic Games benefited from unprecedented exposure by France Télévisions, with three hundred hours of live broadcast, compared to one hundred for the previous edition, in Tokyo in 2021, and less than ten hours for London in 2012.

The closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games was held on Sunday evening, September 8, at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis. Punctuated by electronic music and visually exciting, the event was unanimously praised by the French and foreign press.

Romain Pissenem, a seasoned entrepreneur at the head of High Scream, a production studio specializing in sound and lighting for giant clubs (notably those of his brother Yann Pissenem, well established in Ibiza) and the staging of live electronic shows at the origin of the spectacular shows of David Guetta, DJ Snake, Swedish House Mafia or Indochine, was thus commissioned. Pissenem says he had envisaged this way of partying by proxy, only accessible « IRL » by the 64,000 spectators and 5,800 para athletes and accompanying persons of the 169 delegations present at the stadium.

But the excessive B2B imagined by Victor le Masne, musical director, and Thomas Jolly, artistic director to host the closing ceremony of the Paris Paralympic Games, the supreme stage of their marathon of kind organizers of the liturgies of the 2024 Olympic Games that began with the cataclysmic din of the opening ceremony on July 26, had to be much more than a single-file parade of the cream of this flagship of our industry that is the French electronic scene.

« The unforgettable farewell »: for the newspaper Le Parisien, this closing ceremony was « much more moving and successful than that of August 11. » The absence of major downtime was praised by L’Humanité: « with 24 DJs on the decks, a fantastic atmosphere and a parade reduced to only flag bearers, this closing ceremony managed to free itself from the protocol heaviness to end these Games in joy. »

While the foreign press has not always devoted articles to the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, it has always been effusive when it has done so. For the leading British daily The Guardian, the closing ceremony was quite simply “the biggest party ever organised by France”, in “an explosion of fireworks, laser beams and breakdancing.”

For the picture to be so idyllic, it also needed moments of intense emotion. This came from the performance of La Marseillaise by the disabled French trumpeter André Feydy, the “most moving” version of the national anthem since the start of the Games according to The Guardian. The BBC, for its part, praised “a sparkling closing ceremony that rounded off a fantastic summer of sport in the French capital.” » The Independent concludes that « Paris has brought joy back to the Paralympic Games » before passing the torch to Los Angeles 2028.

The closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games took the form of a huge electro party on the evening of Sunday, September 8, ending the Paris 2024 Olympic adventure as it had begun: in the rain. Some 7.7 million viewers watched the event on television, on France 2, which corresponds to an audience share of 37.7%, according to figures from Médiamétrie published on Monday.

Broadcast live from the Stade de France from 8:30 p.m. to 11:05 p.m., the ceremony gave a large place to electronic music, with 24 French DJs performing, including big names such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Etienne de Crécy and Martin Solveig.

In this temple of sporting performance, which shone so brightly during this unforgettable summer, the public was able to relive the success of the first Summer Paralympic Games held in France.

Spectators from all over the world marveled at some extraordinary sporting feats: the first Paralympic title of the refugee team won by Zakia Khudadadi in Para taekwondo; multi-medal stars such as Jiang Yuyan (the most decorated athlete of the Paris 2024. athletics (five gold medals) and the American Master Oksana in paracycling (two gold medals); as well as the triumph of Matt Stutzman in the Para archery competition.

This Sunday evening at the Stade de France, the singer Santa opened the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympic Games with a rendition of « Vivre pour le Meilleur », an emblematic song by the legend of French rock Johnny Hallyday. Accompanied by her band of musicians, the singer lit up the Stade de France, powerfully uniting the hearts and generations who have shared the same passion throughout the summer.

Paris 2024 Presidents Tony Estanguet and Andrew Parsons of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) celebrated “a historic summer that will stay with us for a long time”, and paid vibrant tribute to the Paralympic athletes for their achievements and to the French public for the magnificent atmosphere of the venue.

After the transfer of Paris 2024 to Los Angeles 2028, from the Tuileries Gardens, the duo Amadou and Mariam, accompanied by a string quartet in an intimate and poignant setting, sang the poetically elegant “Jeez me suis teei te dire je m’en vais” by Serge Gainsbourg to mark the end of the Games.

To close this relay showcasing the diversity of para sports, the precious flame was extinguished by a final golden duo: Aurélie Aubert, the first French Paralympic champion in Boccia and flag bearer of the Paralympic delegation at the closing ceremony, blew away the flame with Mathieu Bosrgdon, the most successful French athlete at these Paralympic Games. At the same time, the cauldron was also extinguished.

A true homage to Parisian nights, from the bustling cabaret evenings of the Belle Époque to the buzz of the first discos, via the frenetic rhythms of the jazz clubs, Paris has established itself as one of the nerve centers of party life.

With a back-to-back set of legendary hits, the French reminded the world that they know how to party. With Jean-Michel Jarre as master of ceremonies, the Stade de France became the biggest nightclub in France for one night, to the rhythm of the DJ set by the crème de la crème of the French electronic music scene: AGORIA, ALAN BRAXE, ANETHA, BOSTON BUN, BREAKBOT and IRFANE, BUSY P, CASSIUS, CHLOIR-NE DRÉSEL, JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, KAVINSKY, KIDDY SMILE, KITTIN, KUNGS, MARTIN SOLVEIG, NATHALIE DUCHENE, OFENBACH, POLO and PAN, TATYANA JANE and LEVENEUR.

Copyright©2024 – IMPACT EUROPEAN

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