After seven years of planning and preparation, Glasgow’s summer sporting extravaganza has finally arrived as the Opening Ceremony gets proceedings at the XX Commonwealth Games underway and you can watch all the action live from Glasgow’s Celtic Park on BBC One.
Scotland’s second city will welcome thousands of spectators, athletes and hundreds of millions of television viewers who will be eagerly watching the ceremonial start of the Games on Wednesday, July 23, with proceedings commencing at 21:00 BST.
Celtic Park is ready to host the largest and most prestigious live show Glasgow and Scotland has ever seen with a two-hour ceremony that organisers have promised “will surprise, delight and be uniquely Glaswegian and Scottish”.
It signals the start of an epic journey for the city of Glasgow and herald 11 days of sporting festivities that will take place from July 24 to August 3.
The whole of the UK also braces itself for two more days of wall-to-wall sporting drama, following the sensational London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics which lived up to its tagline of ‘Inspire a Generation’, and Glasgow will be hoping to emulate the success of two years ago by writing its own distinct chapter in the history of the country’s proud sporting tradition.
Glasgow began preparing itself for the Games in 2007 when it beat Nigeria’s capital Abuja in the vote to stage the 20th Commonwealth Games.
Unlike the Olympics, all the Home Nations will as always be competing separately at the Commonwealth Games, setting up friendly but firm rivalries between Team GB team-mates across all 17 sports.
Despite some notable absentees, Scottish fans will get the chance to some of the biggest names in global sport, including Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and Kenyan middle-distance runner David Rudisha, plus many more aspiring Commonwealth champions.
Before the sport begins in earnest early on Thursday morning, 40,000 spectators will gather inside the stadium of the Scottish Premiership football champions for the Opening Ceremony the night before.
They and millions more watching at home will be treated to a stunning night of entertainment, including performances from Scottishs icon Rod Stewart, former Britain’s Got Talent finalist Susan Boyle and Nicola Benedetti to name but a few.
The ceremonies are being created and produced by Jack Morton Worldwide, who were also responsible for the Ceremonies for Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, and were also the team behind some of the most high profile and critically acclaimed ceremonies on four continents – including Athens 2004 Olympic Ceremonies and the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup Ceremonies.
With the world holding its breath, viewers will be reintroduced to the Commonwealth family and Scotland itself will show everyone what its made of in terms of being an nation which is capable of staging one of the world’s biggest sporting events in terms of scale.
More importantly, the ceremony will aim to celebrate and reflect the commonality and shared qualities of the Commonwealth – the true spirit of unity and diversity.
From audacious, visual and musical performances to theatrical moments, the celebration will set the Glasgow skyline alight, as a cast of more than 3,000 volunteers take part in what promises to be a spectacular occasion.
The story of the Commonwealth nations will be aptly represented through the Parade of Nations, which contains 70 nations and territories from all corners of the globe, with Scotland’s judoka Euan Burton chosen to carry the host nation’s flag into the stadium, with the Scottish team being the 70th and final nation to enter with the home fans no doubt giving them a rapturous welcome.
India, as previous host of the Commonwealth Games, will lead the parade in which the teams will enter the stadium by region, while athletes and team officials will be seated on the field of play in the centre of the show.
After the Parade of Nations, the traditional Competitors’ Oath will be read, before the epic finale to the Queen’s Baton Relay takes place as it ends its 190, 000km and 288-day adventure.
The ceremony marks the formal end of the epic journey of the Baton Relay, which has visited every Commonwealth nation in the lead up to the event.
Her Majesty the Queen will read the message contained in the baton which formed the heart of a 10-month relay across the Commonwealth, then step forward to declare Glasgow’s 2014 Games officially open.
As well as the 4,500 athletes from the 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth who have come to the Games, there will be more than 40,000 spectators at Celtic Park and a potential television audience of more than one billion.
The Celtic Park stadium was chosen by the organisers to host the Opening Ceremony and the venue, one of the most famous in Scottish sport, has a long and proud history.
Built in 1892, the stadium was completely redeveloped and upgraded in 1999 and today it is one of the finest football venues in the whole of the UK, with a spectator arrangement that brings the audience close to the action, providing an excellent setting for the ceremony.
Behind closed doors at Celtic Park, preparations have been ongoing ahead of the Opening Ceremony and while not too much has been given away about it by the organisers in the build-up, an idea of what the ceremony will look like is starting to take shape.
Europe’s largest LED screen has been installed inside Celtic Park to create a ‘window to the world’ for Glasgow and Scotland to connect with locations across the city, Scotland and the Commonwealth.
The giant screen has been built across the whole of the South Stand and will be almost 100 meters long, 11 meters high and will weigh in at 38 tonnes.
A specially-designed stage floor has also been created which covers the entire pitch and includes a colourful walkway specifically designed for the athlete’s parade.
Thousands of volunteers will share the limelight with world-famous names including Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle and Nicola Benedetti to help the city tell its own story and welcome the Commonwealth to the biggest sporting celebration Scotland has ever hosted.
Organisers hope their ceeremony will go beyond the walls of the stadium, and across not only the host city but also visit locations around Scotland and the Commonwealth, bringing the world to Glasgow and Glasgow to the world.
The culmination of many weeks and months of intense preparations is almost here and the stage is now set for the biggest event ever to come to Scotland.
Watch it all unfold on the BBC across TV, radio and online, starting with Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, July 23.
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The BBC will broadcast the entire Glasgow 2014 Opening Ceremony live and uninterrupted from Celtic Park on Wednesday, July 23, on BBC One and BBC One HD.
Gary Lineker and Hazel Irvine will present the BBC’s coverage from inside the stadium, starting at 8.00pm, where 40,000 people will gather to watch a spectacular two-hour show which kick starts 11 days of unmissable sporting competition.
Various special guests and members of the BBC team will be joining the presenting team in the one-hour build-up to the starts of the ceremony to give their views and thoughts on how they think the next two weeks will unfold, including Olympic track cycling legend Chris Hoy, multiple Australian Olympic swimming gold medallist Ian Thorpe, four-time Delhi 2010 Commonwealth gold medallist Rebecca Adlington.
The BBC’s reporting team, including Clare Balding and Lee McKenzie, will be on the ground bringing the latest news and interviews with various guests and sporting legends around the stadium.
Build-up the ceremony begins during a special one-hour edition of The One Show live from the stadium itself starting at 7.00pm, presented by Matt Baker and Alex Jones, who will be joined by special guests as Glasgow’s sporting party gets going.
Once the ceremony commences at 9.00pm, BBC News anchor Huw Edwards will lead the commentary alongside Hazel Irvine, who is working on her sixth Commonwealth Games for BBC Sport.
Live coverage of the Opening Ceremony will be available to watch in high-definition on BBC Ond HD and online via the BBC Sport website and app.
If you prefer to watch the Opening Ceremony without the BBC commentary, then you can do so by pressing the Red Button during the live show from 8.00pm.
After BBC One’s coverage of the ceremony has concluded at approximately 11.00pm, there will also be a chance to see the key moments again, as well as a full replay, via BBC Red Button.
Once the colour and spectacle of the Opening Ceremony is done and dusted, the serious business begins as 11 days of unmissable sporting action gets underway the following morning and the BBC will have all the action from the 2014 Commonwealth Games covered on television, radio and online.
Check out Sport On The Box’s complete viewing guide to Glasgow 2014 here or look out for our regular daily TV guides on the website.
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| WEDNESDAY 23rd JULY |
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony
Start Time: 21:00 BST | Celtic Park, Glasgow
.LIVE: 8.00pm-11.00pm BBC One
No commentary option via BBC Red Button
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WATCH LIVE ONLINE via BBC iPLAYER
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Im not sure reminding athletes about the poverty back hone & the way kids suffer is s goid idea before they compete. Puts them psychologically down. Bad idea…certainly not intentional im sure