The 2014 Asian Games opening ceremony was held on Friday, 19 September 2014 at the newly built Incheon Asiad Main Stadium.

[10][11] A countdown footage was shown with a Pop-up book featuring sceneries of the 45 participating nations of the Asian Games.

[14] Kim is a young rhythmic gymnast attending Incheon Cheongil Primary School who hoped to represent Korea in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

She was later joined by 44 other hoop-rolling children from various schools to represent the 45 participating nations of the games as well as the population of the Asian continent of 4.5 billion.

[15] At the end of the performance, Sumi Jo sang the Korean traditional folk song Arirang with 10-vocalist choir.

[16][17] Before the start of the main performance, a video of the 2014 Asian Games torch relay was played with British band Coldplay's single, Viva la Vida as background music.

Five musical artists Ock Joo-hyun, Michael K. Lee, Cha Ji-Yeon, Yang Joon-Mo and Jung Sung-hwa performing "We meet again" while the second footage was playing.

They are Um Hong-Gil: renowned Korean mountaineer, and the first person in Asia to climb all of the 16 highest Himalayan peaks; Seok Haekyun, heroic captain of Aden Bay; Lee Bongju, the Boston men's marathon winner in 2001; actor Hyun-bin, an honorary ambassador of Incheon 2014; ballerina Kang Sujin; Korean lawmaker Jasmine Lee, the first non-ethnic Assembly member; professional golfer Park Seri, the youngest golfer being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on the LPGA Tour; and finally, Lim Chun-ae, the triple gold medal winning middle distance runner at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

All 45 national delegations participated in the parade and each of them were led by an official wearing a dress decorated with their country's natural symbols.

South Korean K-Pop artist group JYJ consists of Kim Jae-joong, Yoochun and Junsu, performing a medley of few of their singles including "Only One", the games' official theme song, "Flame" and their hit "Empty" during the torch relay section.