“I had the feeling that there was a last desire to vibrate together,” says Thomas Jolly.

The day after the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies, and Damien Gabriac, scriptwriter for the evening, look back on the evening, their ambitions and the hiccups.

“I had the feeling that there was a last desire to vibrate”declared Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the ceremonies for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, on franceinfo on Monday August 12, the day after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games at the Stade de France.

“The fervor last night, this last desire to celebrate together, it was very beautiful to experience”greeted Thomas Jolly. “We are not going to brag, because we know where we come from, but we are happy to see how these ceremonies have been received.”.

Thomas Jolly also returned to the only small “quack” of this closing ceremony, namely the presence of 400 athletes dancing on fragile screens during the concert by the group Phoenix, even though they had been invited to leave the stadium. “I found it so beautiful, this instinct to come together, to go towards the group, to go towards the music”assured Thomas Jolly. “It looked like a small rock club in the heart of the stadium. Obviously, they shouldn’t have stayed because the decor wasn’t designed for all the athletes to dance and jump on, but there were no injuries and the decor held up.”.

“I found that this salvo of athletes from all over the world, running on the continents that were represented in the stadium, I found it very beautiful,” he concluded, before mentioning the next opening ceremony, that of the Paralympic Games, which will take place at Place de la Concorde: “Obviously there will be a link with our history, our architecture, our heritage, in the heart of the city again.”