The opening ceremony for the 2018 Commonwealth Games took place on the evening of Wednesday 4 April in the Carrara Stadium, Gold Coast. As mandated by the Commonwealth Games Charter, the proceedings of the ceremony combined the formal opening of the sporting event (including hoisting of the flags, parade of the athletes and welcome speeches) with an artistic performance to showcase the host nation's culture. The 2018 Games were formally opened by Charles, Prince of Wales. Jack Morton Worldwide was given the contract to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The theme of the opening ceremony was Hello Earth and directed by David Zolkwer.
The ceremony began at 20:00 AEST and lasted almost three hours. It was watched by an estimated worldwide television of 1.5 billion. The principal sections of the artistic display represented Australia's Indigenous culture, Gold Coast's Surfers Paradise, wildlife and theme parks. A medley of Australian classics were played live by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestra and Gold Coast Youth Orchestra during the parade of nations. Popular Australian recording artists such as Christine Anu, Delta Goodrem, Katie Noonan and Ricki-Lee Coulter performed at the ceremony. The opening ceremony was seen as a tremendous success and worldwide praised.
Preparations
Three Australian companies: Specktak International, World Events, Dae Global and one American company Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW) submitted bids to the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. On 27 December 2015, the GOLDOC announced they chose Jack Morton Worldwide to produce the ceremonies of the games. This sparked a controversy as the head of all the three Australian Companies Ric Birch, head of Spectak, David Atkins, head of Dae Global and Julie Brooks, head of World Events questioned to GOLDOC that why an American company (JMW) was chosen for the production of ceremonies which was going to happen in Australia. Ric Birch, who co-ordinated the ceremonies of the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, called for a review of the decision to overlook three Australian companies to present the ceremonies at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. GOLDOC's head of communications Marcus Taylor said that JMW is an international company which have been working in Australia since 1983 and have a range of experiences in producing the ceremonies of events as they have previously done for 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
On 22 November 2017, the GOLDOC revealed some of the key artistic personnel working on the ceremonies of the games. The creative team for the opening and closing ceremonies consisted of a roster of renowned individuals. Leading the ceremonies team as Artistic Director and Project Director was David Zolkwer, Head of Jack Morton Worldwide Public Events. David previously led the teams for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Australian singer Katie Noonan, winner of five ARIA music awards and former lead singer of Brisbane based band George, was given the role of the Music Director of the ceremonies. Katie said "I'm a fiercely proud Queensland musician; I think we make some of the best music in the world and indeed some of the best art in the world. There's some truly world class dance and music being made here, so it's a good time to focus on our (cultural) identity and realise that we're really good at what we do." She has served as the Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival since 2015.
Nathan M. Wright served as the Head of Choreography and Staging Director for the opening ceremony. Nathan is a highly respected choreographer and performer who has worked on large-scale events extensively, including choreography for the opening and closing ceremonies of both the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London and the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The role of Executive Producer for the ceremonies was given to Merryn Hughes. Merryn has also served as the Executive Producer for the ceremonies of the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea and the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.