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Olympic Games Closing Ceremony
HOPSCOTCH EVENT and its partner LEAP CREATIVE STUDIO had the honor of being chosen by Paris 2024 to ensure the executive production of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games.
A ceremony designed by Thomas Jolly and his teams, which took place on August 11, 2024, at the Stade de France.
Like the other ceremonies led by Paris 2024, this virtuoso show made its mark on the history of Olympic Games ceremonies as a whole.
A Record-Breaking Ceremony
This event combined an extraordinary creative ambition with a multitude of extreme complexities in terms of production, technique, and logistics.
It required navigating the exceptional constraints of an active Stade de France during the Games and managing an unprecedented security setup due to the venue and area lockdown.
Moreover, this ceremony, marking the end of exceptional games, benefited from creative adjustments up to the last minute, demanding unparalleled agility and inventiveness from our teams and partners to fully support the boldness of Paris 2024 and embody its spirit one last time.
One Night and One Day to Succeed
August 11 – 00:01, marks the beginning of the shortest and most complex transition night of all the Games, the one that allows the shift from the “Competitions” setup to the Ceremony setup: the Sports teams dismantle their infrastructures as well as all their rooms in the Stadium while our teams take the field and work behind the scenes.
August 11 – 9:00 PM, it’s broadcast time, for 3 hours of show with sequences that will unfold without ever having been rehearsed continuously at the Stade de France.
Ambition and Unprecedented Complexity
Before reaching August 11, 2024, the teams at HOPSCOTCH EVENT and LEAP CREATIVE STUDIO faced considerable challenges… among which…
Designing and producing 5 rings with a diameter of 6 meters that must serve as both apparatus and fly at a height of 40 meters
Bringing a “golden traveler” into the middle of the stadium from the air
Making a piano fly
Hosting an exceptional lineup of world-renowned artists and personalities: Angèle, Kavinsky, Yseult, the Divertimento orchestra, H.E.R…
Rappelling Tom Cruise down from the roof.
Arranging for all athletes to arrive and be welcomed at the Stade de France while optimizing their immobilization time as much as possible, taking into account the movements of all other groups arriving at the stadium within the same time frame.
Orchestrating a ceremony that takes place in 2 distinct spaces and an Olympic flame that is transported from the Tuileries to the Stade de France within a precise timeframe.
To prepare all of this, it was necessary to organize, plan, and produce under unprecedented conditions…
Combining a rehearsal schedule with those of other ceremonies to allow the creative team to follow all the subjects.
Having an engineering setup for sound, lighting, and flying machinery infrastructures to phase the setups in coexistence with the Games’ setups during the two and a half months leading up to the ceremony.
Managing with 0 hours of general rehearsal, but:
- rehearsals with performers at a remote site where the stage was set up
- sound rehearsals scheduled during the day between competition sessions
- night rehearsals and adjustments, in maximum 5-hour slots, between competition days during the Games, for lighting and mass movements
We didn’t know it was impossible, so we did it!