Closing Ceremony
A more relaxed affair was held for the 14th Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, reflecting that of Christchurch in 1974. Attended by HM The Queen, formality and respect played their due part in the beginning with formal salute and the acceptance of the Commonwealth Games flag to the next host city, Victoria, Canada. This was followed by a Native American and modern Canadian dancing display.
Then the fun began with thousands of children entering the stadium with a mass jumprope demonstration, followed by the Athletes themselves. The Queen then made the traditional closing speech and called for all the Commonwealth's athletes to assemble in four years time in Victoria BC in 1994. As the evening wore on, opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang "Now is the Hour" a favorite New Zealand hymn as the Royal New Zealand Airforce's A4 Skyhawks made one final swooping flyover of Mt Smart Stadium followed by fireworks. It was then The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Edward exited the stadium standing in open top vehicles.
Read more about this topic: 1990 Commonwealth Games
Famous quotes containing the words closing and/or ceremony:
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“We are nothing but ceremony; ceremony carries us away, and we leave the substance of things; we hang on to the branches and abandon the trunk and body.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)