The Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics kick off on Friday with an unprecedentedly widespread opening ceremony. Held in the two host cities and in several Alpine venues, it’s set to feature more than 1,000 performers — including Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli — who will celebrate Italian history, culture and fashion.
Milan’s San Siro 75,000-seat stadium is the main venue for the two‑and‑a‑half‑hour live Olympic opener, expected to draw an audience of 2.2 billion globally. The ceremony is taking place amid tight security with thousands of Italian police officers, aided by surveillance drones and robots, patroling the area around the stadium where dozens of heads of state, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will be watching the show.
The lead-up to the games has been marked by protests over the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who will not be in the streets but are instead there as security for Vance and Rubio, as well as a Russian cyberattack aimed at some Olympics-related websites and hotels. Tensions over the presence of ICE in Italy caused the official hospitality hangout space for the U.S. Olympic team in Milan to undergo a name change from The Ice House to The Winter House.
Veteran Olympic ceremonies wizard Marco Balich, who is producing the opener, has built the multi-location show around the Greek concept of “harmony,” intended to bring together city and mountains, man and nature and the 2,900 athletes from cultures that share the Olympic space.
Balich tells Variety that, unlike previous Olympic openers such as the star-studded Paris 2024 opener, “This is the first time we’re going to have a somber ceremony.” Olympics organizers are focusing on deploying less glitz and more ecological sustainability, while still generating lots of excitement.
Still, Snoop Dogg is attending as a special correspondent for NBC’s coverage; and Sabrina Impacciatore, known to U.S. audiences for roles in “The White Lotus” and “The Paper,” will be performing a musical number retracing 100 years of the Winter Olympics.
For the the first time in Olympic history, two Olympic cauldrons — one at Milan’s Arco della Pace and one in Cortina’s Piazza Dibona — will be lit simultaneously. Also, the traditional Parade of Nations will be divided across four locations — Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo — with TV coverage weaving it all into a seamless narrative.
Read on for the biggest moments from this year’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony, updating live.