Events - Illumination of the Champs-Élysées: Reserve your November 20th for Tahar Rahim

By Mulder, 27 october 2022

'' The heart of the Champs-Élysées beats at the same rhythm as that of the French. In 2020, we wanted our Illuminations to be those of hope despite endless confinements. In 2021, it was about renewal, revival and recovery, the reopening of the places of spectacle, the return of the festival, a certain freedom, the found joy. In 2022, the Illuminations will have not only an energetic and economic dimension, but also a psychological and educational one. They will be synonymous with sobriety and solidarity. They will be admirable and sustainable, reasonable and remarkable. Little electricity and a lot of generosity. As an affirmation that we participate in the individual efforts of the French, but that we also know how to preserve these moments of collective and shared joy without which the holidays do not exist! Marc-Antoine Jamet, President of the Champs-Élysées Committee

A generational hero for an eternal Avenue, a French actor for a universal Avenue, on November 20th, Tahar Rahim will light up the Champs-Élysées!

There are good traditions. There are good landmarks. At the end of November, one month before Christmas, the Illumination of the Champs-Élysées kicks off the holiday season in Paris, in France and far beyond. This launching ceremony will be held on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 6:00 pm. Tahar Rahim will light up the most beautiful avenue in the world! At the end of the traditional press conference, held as it should be from the Fouquet's, Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the Comité Champs-Élysées, revealed the name of the sponsor of the
Illuminations 2022, the one who, with him and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will unleash a brilliant wave of light between Concorde and Arc-de-Triomphe.

For the greatest joy of all his fans, for those who loved the actor twice césarisé, who applauded him in front of Jodie Foster, Béatrice Béjo, Merryl Streep, Léa Seydoux or... Leïla Bekhti, whom he worried in "Serpent" and fascinated in "Prophet", Tahar Rahim answered favorably to the invitation of the Champs-Élysées Committee. He will be the one to press the buzzer to make the Champs-Élysées shine until January 2, 2023. A generational hero for an eternal Avenue. A French actor for a universal Avenue.

It is a great pleasure for me to be the Godfather of the Illuminations of the Champs-Élysées 2022 and to accompany this emblematic ceremony of the end-of-year celebrations! I look forward to seeing you on Sunday, November 20th to illuminate the most beautiful avenue in the world and to share this moment together. A big thank you to the Champs-Élysées Committee for its confidence. ''

After four years surrounded by a halo of red, mysterious, magical and wonderful, it is a brand new scenography, Sobrillance, composed of millions of LEDs and golden flashes, original creation of the company Blachère Illumination, a small business from Vaucluse, leader on its market, which will decorate the Champs-Elysees. A modern Avenue is a model Avenue. In publishing its energy conservation plan, the Committee had already announced on September 20 important measures to reduce its electricity consumption. Thus, the Illuminations, lit every day at 5:00 p.m., will be extinguished at 11:45 p.m. (instead of 2:00 a.m. previously), and refocused from November 20 to January 2, 2023 for a duration of 6 weeks instead of 7.

While the Illuminations, in 2006, required 480,000 KWH, they will only consume a total of 11,500 KWH in 2022, a reduction of 97% in 16 years and 44% compared to 2021! This measure completes the other initiatives already taken by the Committee, in particular the extinction at 10:00 pm of the signs, windows and screens of the businesses of its members, to reduce the electricity consumption of the Avenue this winter without compromising its radiance or preventing these moments of collective and shared joy synonymous with the holidays. As a concrete demonstration of its commitment, the Committee will take the initiative to extinguish the Illuminations during a second ceremony: the extinction after the Illumination.

The Illuminations are a show. It is produced by the Champs-Élysées Committee thanks to the support of its members, the City of Paris and their partners. RTL will join France 3 Ile-de-France and 20 Minutes, media already mobilized around the event. For a brilliant sponsor, a brilliant moment, a prominent sponsor was needed. One of the biggest French brands on the Avenue, Sephora, has therefore decided to become the exclusive sponsor of the Illuminations.

The return of the inauguration in the middle of the pedestrianized Champs-Elysées, last year, had symbolized the return to normal life after the confinements and curfews. 110,000 people had gathered to launch a final countdown before the lighting of the Avenue by Clara Luciani. More than a quarter of the French population saw the 2021 ceremony on television where, in France, it was broadcasted by all the TV news, retransmitted on all the social networks, taken up by hundreds of international media. Alongside Tahar Rahim, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the President of the Committee, two "Little Princes" will be invited, as every year, to illuminate the Champs-Élysées. The Champs-Élysées Committee is happy to offer its support to this association whose mission is to make the dreams of sick children come true.

Photos : Copyright Sabine Villiard

(Source : press release)