behind the scenes of the Arc de Triomphe fireworks

Saturday December 31, the traditional fireworks display at the Arc de Triomphe returns after a long absence due to the health crisis. A musical and pyrotechnic show that requires many preparations on the Place de l’Etoile and the Champs-Elysées.

How are the New Year’s Eve festivities shaping up on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées? After two successive editions canceled in 2021 and 2020, the New Year’s Eve show will be back from 10 p.m. this Saturday, with a “musical selection“.

The pyrotechnic show will begin with a countdown at 11:59 p.m. The fireworks, designed for “to sanctify love and the openness of Paris to the world“, must start at midnight and last 7 minutes with a “warm soundtrack” and “a choreography composed of 8 paintings of light and fire“.

Between 400,000 and 500,000 people are expected on the Champs-Elysées to attend the show.

The show requires great preparation. The artifices – which represent “340 kg of active ingredient” – are arranged around the Arc de Triomphe, in a perimeter of 450 meters in circumference, but also at the top of the monument. If the equipment has already been installed by 60 technicians, the filling will only take place a few hours before the start of the show, for security reasons.

20 bomb disposal experts are mobilized to ensure the event. The only uncertainty that could complicate the organization of the show: the weather. Each firework is connected to a trigger box – a precise mechanism that fears the wind but not the rain.

“It’s protected, it’s made for. And as we know that it will spend a night outside, it is covered. So there is no problem“, explains Raphaëlle Legrand, who is part of the team preparing the fireworks.

As part of the New Year festivities, a reinforced security system is planned, with 5,400 police and gendarmes mobilized in Paris and in the inner suburbs. The police headquarters (PP) stresses that the Champs-Elysées sector will be particularly monitored.

Restrictions will be put in place regarding traffic, parking and public access to this area. The PP posted on Twitter a map with the details.

The police headquarters also announces that “the take-away sale of alcohol and its consumption on the public highway, in a wider area around the avenue des Champs-Elysées” will be prohibited from 6 p.m. Friday, and until 8 a.m. Monday.

It should also be noted that on New Year’s Eve, Charles de Gaulle-Étoile is part of stations that will remain open at night from December 31 to January 1. The station is served by lines 1, 2 and 6 of the metro, as well as by line A of the RER.

The Charles de Gaulle-Etoile station (RER A), just like Argentine (metro line 1), will however be closed from 5 p.m., the time of the show. The George V (line 1), Franklin D. Roosevelt (lines 1 and 9) and Champs-Elysées Clémenceau (lines 1 and 13) stations will be closed from 6 p.m. From 8 p.m., the Concorde (lines 1, 8 and 12) and Tuileries (line 1) stations will also be inaccessible.

Beyond these restrictions, access to transport will be free from 5 p.m. on Saturday December 31, until noon on Sunday January 1, announces the RATP.

With Isabelle Dupont, Martin Cauwel and Bastien Moignoux.