Paris Paralympics to open with ceremony focusing on social paradoxes

A three-hour sound and light extravaganza highlighting social contradictions involving 4,400 competitors from 160 countries will launch the 17th Paralympic Games on Wednesday night on the Champs Elysées and Place de la Concorde in central Paris.

An estimated worldwide TV audience of 300 million people will watch the launch show for the first Paralympic Games in Paris since their inception in Rome in 1960 and the first to take place away from the main Olympic stadium.

The event – entitled Paradox – has emerged from the same brains behind the acclaimed opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic Games.

Chief choreographer Alexander Ekman says he will use 150 dancers, including around 20 with disabilities who will deploy crutches, wheelchairs and adapted tricycles during their movements to a musical soundtrack composed by Victor Le Masne.

Unlike the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games along the river Seine, which was marked by stringent security for the 300,000 spectators, the Paralympics' show will allow around 15,000 people to watch for free along the Champs-Elysées and near the Louvre Museum.

However, the 35,000 spectators in stands around the Place de la Concorde will pay between 150 and 700 euros for a seat.

Raising questions

"Making the city the backdrop for this ceremony is already a paradox," artistic director Thomas Jolly told RFI. "Because the city is not completely adapted for people with disabilities.

Nearly two million tickets have been sold for the Games.

Read more on RFI English

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