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.

[10] [11] The ceremony began with the introductory performance titled "Call to Gather", featuring main character Stella – a "dreamer", played by Lorell Boyce.

A combination of video footage and CGI imagery showed that as the athletes pack their shards of light into the bag, their houses floated into the sky and gather above the stadium, forming the "courtyard of the Commonwealth".

At the stage centre, they are surrounded by featured parkour artists, stunt cyclists and giant puppets that represented literary figures, scientists and musicians from Birmingham's history: Edward Elgar, the Lunar Men, Samuel Johnson and William Shakespeare.

Charlie Chaplin accidentally sets fire to the city's first free public library, a reference to the destruction of the first Shakespeare Memorial Room in 1879.