The Olympic Games will get under way on Saturday morning following Friday night’s opening ceremony in Paris.
Among the raindrops that fell on the athletes and dignitaries, there were dancers and performers on the boulevards, River Seine and, at times, perched on the side of buildings. Here, Telegraph Sport relives some of the strangest moments from the night.
The Smurf
A giant cloche is raised to reveal a fruit salad topped by a near-naked man covered in blue paint and sporting a bright orange beard and wearing a fruit headdress and sash. Looking like some kind of deranged Smurf, he then begins to sing. According to BBC commentator Hazel Irvine, the man, singer-songwriter Philippe Katerine, is meant to be portraying Greek god Dionysus. It is an image that will remain seared into the memories of all who saw it.
A piano on fire
Singer Juliette Armanet and pianist Sofiane Pamart’s water-borne performance of John Lennon’s Imagine – a song with the line ‘imagine there’s no countries’ sung after every nation in the world has sailed past – is completely overshadowed by Pamart’s piano being set on fire for no apparent reason