Spectacular Bastille Day show draws record crowds in Paris

By Robert Fawdon from Paris, July 17, 2015: The President of France, the Mayor of Paris, Paris 2024 Bid leaders and more than 100 athletes formed part of record crowds as hundreds of thousands of spectators gathered on the Champ de Mars and its surrounding areas in Paris to celebrate Bastille Day this week.

With the theme ‘Paris welcomes the world’, the firework display began with a message of support for city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

160,000 glowing bracelets were distributed to the public to wear creating a spectacular light show and a powerful moment of unity as the city celebrated the French national day and Paris’ bid for the 2024 Games. The event was broadcast live to 3 million viewers on France 2 and the Mayor shared the firework display with social media users all around the world by broadcasting the event live on Periscope.

More than 150,000 photos, tweets and comments were shared on social networking sites, including 50,000 tweets with the hashtag #14juillet. More than 100,000 photos were posted on Instagram and posts about the firework display generated more than 100,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook.
Speaking about the event, The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said:

“Paris is a dynamic and diverse city and it’s wonderful to see record crowds coming together to celebrate Bastille Day with such vigor and passion. We will harness this energy as we continue in our bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and we are confident that together we can create a bid that will be infused with the same vitality and dynamism for Paris and the whole of France.”

Chairman of Paris 2024, Bernard Lapasset, said:
“The record breaking Bastille Day festivities were a fantastic celebration of the pride and unity that embodies the people of Paris and France. These are the unique values that we will draw on as we piece together our bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

“We are delighted with the broad support of our political stakeholders and the firm commitment offered by the President, François Hollande, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and our wonderful athletes.”

The City of Paris also sent it’s thanks to the many partners who made this show possible, including France Télévisions, Radio France and Electron Libre Productions. The work of Groupe F pyrotechnicians, who launched the fireworks directly from the Eiffel Tower was also commended.

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