The ceremony for the grand reopening of France’s Notre Dame cathedral will be held entirely indoors due to an inclement weather forecast, the Elysee Palace and Paris diocese said Friday.
Saturday’s reopening, which comes five years after the fire that devastated the famed Paris landmark, was moved inside after weather service Meteo France forecast wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, “obliging us to reorganise the arrangements”, said President Emmanuel Macron’s office and the local diocese in a joint statement.
A long list of world leaders, royalty and celebrities are due to attend the gala event.
Those include Britain’s Prince William, US president-elect Donald Trump and possibly US singer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams, who is widely rumoured to perform.
The ceremony was initially to feature a speech by Macron outside the cathedral.
That was the subject of delicate negotiations between the diocese and his office, which wanted him to speak inside.
As for the scheduled concert, “the artists due to perform (Saturday) are instead recording live tonight” outside the cathedral, with the recording to be retransmitted during the event, the statement said.