King Charles III, the Loch Ness Monster and thousands of athletes and Para-athletes took centre stage as the 2026 Commonwealth Games officially began with the opening ceremony. These Games are the first with King Charles as Head of the Commonwealth.
King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived into Glasgow's Hydro Arena in Doctor Who's Tardis – a reference to the blue police boxes seen around the city. After taking their seats alongside new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was attending his first major engagement since replacing Sir Keir Starmer, athletes from the 74 competing nations and territories entered the arena.
Those from Botswana were the first to emerge, with athletes dressed in the colours of their nations, including Ghana's red, green, yellow and black stripes, South Africa in Springbok-style rugby jerseys, and Barbados in blue and yellow combined with tartan scarves.
The ceremony's stage was shaped to represent a Celtic knot
One of the louder cheers came for the Falklands Islands – in the news recently following Argentina's victory over England in the football World Cup semi-finals – and another followed when the Samoa team emerged and performed a haka in front of the dignitaries in the Royal Box.
But nothing compared to the noise which greeted the arrival of the Scotland team, who entered the arena last in their white shirts and kilts and lifted many in the capacity crowd from their seats.
A large Loch Ness Monster representation then emerged, before, backed by bagpipers and drummers, a rousing rendition of Flower of Scotland followed.
What happened in the theatrical performances?
The next section of the evening featured theatrical performances – a show billed as
