The Commonwealth Games opened in Glasgow on Thursday evening with a surreal spectacle: King Charles and Queen Camilla stepping out of a Tardis in the middle of the OVO Hydro Arena. The blue police box – a nod to Doctor Who, and to the Scottish architect Gilbert MacKenzie Trench who designed the originals – had zipped through space and time, past Loch Ness, Edinburgh Castle and the Glenfinnan Viaduct, before materialising before a capacity crowd of 10,000.
Cycling great Sir Chris Hoy greeted the royal couple as they emerged, and the King and Queen took their seats next to the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, attending his first major engagement since replacing Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. Then came the athletes: 3,000 of them from 74 nations and territories, parading in a ceremony that organisers billed as “a love letter to Glasgow and the Commonwealth”.
“King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive in a Tardis for Glasgow's scaled-back Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.”
Botswana led the way, followed by Ghana in red, green, yellow and black, South Africa in Springbok-style rugby jerseys, and Barbados in blue, yellow and tartan scarves. A huge cheer went up for the Falklands Islands – in the news after Argentina beat England in the football World Cup semi-finals – and another for Samoa, who performed a haka in front of the Royal Box. But the loudest roar of the night was saved for the Scotland team, who entered last in white shirts and kilts, led by bowls star Alex “Tattie” Marshall, waving phones and singing along to The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
A mechanical Loch Ness monster then emerged, and bagpipers and drummers launched into a rousing Flower of Scotland. The musical highlight came from Scottish folk singer Nathan Evans and Callum Beattie, whose rendition of Yes Sir, I Can Boogie had athletes dancing in their seats as sparkly unicorns crossed the stage. KT Tunstall also performed.
The Games had been in jeopardy after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew as host in 2023 due to financial pressures, and Glasgow stepped in at short notice to salvage them. The result is a stripped-back edition: just 10 sports, compared with 19 in Birmingham four years ago, and 3,000 athletes instead of nearly 5,000. The ceremony itself was intimate and low on pyrotechnics, relying on the energy of the crowd.
Opening the Games, King Charles addressed the athletes directly. “Your perseverance inspires us,” he said, before turning to a more urgent theme: plastic pollution. The Queen’s Baton Relay, he noted, had carried a message “to help remove the plastic pollution that harms our oceans and waterways, and can impact on human health.” He added: “Addressing plastic pollution complements the immense global efforts required.”
As the King and Queen left the arena, the question hanging over the night was whether this scaled-back revival can secure the Commonwealth Games’ long-term future – or whether it is merely a last hurrah.