2010 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main stadium of the event, in New Delhi, India. It began at 7:00 pm (IST) on 14 October 2010 and ended at 9:20 pm (IST). The ceremony included display of martial arts from a number of states of India followed by musical performances and showcasing the culture of Scotland, which will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The ceremony commenced with the official introductions of the dignitaries who included Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister of India), Hamid Ansari (Vice-President of India), Sonia Gandhi (United Progressive Alliance Chairperson), the Commonwealth Games Federation Chairman Michael Fennell and Mahinda Rajapaksa (President of Sri Lanka) as the guest of honour. Indian national anthem was played in the stadium.

The cultural programme began with a segment titled Agni, in which skills in eight Indian martial arts forms: Kalaripayattu, Naga warriors, Thangta, Gatka, Silambam, Akhara, Dhan Patta, Talwar Raas were displayed by 800 performers from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Gujarat, Punjab, Maharashtra and Nagaland in an eight-minute act.

The next segment was the Milatary Martial Music, which comprised the performance by the 650 musicians from fourteen military bands, 17 pipes and drums of a number of regiments and battalions of the Indian Army. It was followed by the segment Tribute to Our Motherland. It was a performance by 2,010 schoolchildren to the tunes of A. R. Rahman's composition Vande Mataram. A group of performers moved in to form the Ashoka Chakra at the centre, while the others holding coloured powder dispensers, sprinkled the colours of the Indian flag on the field, in a similar fashion done in the festival of Holi

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