Tonight’s spectacular takes place in Carrara Stadium, the centrepiece of the Games’ infrastructure, where Artistic Director David Zolkwer is set to wow an audience headlined by Prince Charles with an “eclectic and inclusive” celebration of Australia and southern Queensland.

Coming to you from the Gold Coast on Australia’s eastern seaboard, the 21st Comm Games will feature 71 nations competing in 275 events across 18 different sports and seven para-sports over the next 11 days.

The motto for the games is “Share The Dream”.

According to the official website: “Share the Dream is a call to action that asks us to go beyond passively observing the event. It tells us we can actively immerse ourselves in the experience. For supporters, the community, volunteers and sponsors to share in GC2018.”

The mascot for the games is a spunky little koala called Borobi. He has fur the colour of the ocean and a passion for surfing and adventure.

In case you were wondering, Borobi means koala in the indigenous Yugambeh language and was inspired by a drawing by Brisbane school teacher Merrilyn Krohn.

Borobi has an entire backstory, which is really rather cute, that you can explore on the various GC2018 digital platforms.

The Queen’s Baton Relay was launched on 13 March 2017 (Commonwealth Day), at Buckingham Palace. The Queen began the relay by placing her message to the Commonwealth and its athletes into Baton which was then sent on its journey around the world.

388 days later, via every nation and territory of the Commonwealth the baton will arrive at Carrara Stadium tonight and the message read aloud by Prince Charles.

Our narrator stands in the middle of the arena, holding a small illuminated globe, sharing a message of unity.

“Home. That’s where we live. From here, you can’t see any borders. No barriers built to divide us, no people on different sides. All that we are, and have been, and can be, all that we value, all that we love, all our memories and stories, our hopes and our dreams, the best, and the worst, of us – is here, on that tiny grain of rock. From here there’s no sound of our quarrels, no voices in conflict, no people at war. From here it seems, we’re all the same, not drifting apart, but all connected. No sign of ‘Other’ – only Sister and Brother. No ‘You’, or ‘Me’ – just ‘We’. From here, all that we see is all that we share: Shining, fragile, awesome… …our island home in a cosmic sea. “

The globe is placed in sand, nesting like a turtle’s egg, before exploding out to reveal a pretty awesome shifting visualisation of the earth.

The mood has shifted back to reverential with a totem ceremony. This represents a moment of reconnecting and regeneration, a ritual in which the ceremonial knowledge of the totemic system is passed down from Ancestors and Elders past, through Elders present, to the Elders of the future. It is haunting and beautiful.

Lit by a cool white light, Totem features performance by youngsters from Bangarra’s Rekindling Program. Rekindling is an intensive dance-based education program for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander secondary students to explore who you are and where you come from. The participants research and gather stories with the help and guidance from Elders within their communities. They then develop dance, performance and creative skills to produce dance theatre in collaboration with local Elders and community members.

This is all about Migaloo, the white whale, from earlier. “This is a celebration of our shared Home and our essential connectivity to everyone and every place, as symbolized by the white whale, Migaloo. Migaloo serves to remind us that, whoever we are and wherever we are, we live in the same place; we share the same fantastic planet; we are all connected. Despite our apparent differences, we are all simply a part of the human race and our island is our shared home.”

First in… Scotland! As the host nation of the last games they have the honour. They will lead out the European contingent. 400m hurdler Eilidh Doyle is carrying the Scottish flag.

Fourteen Caribbean nations, starting with Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados (my favourite flag, I love a trident), British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, and Montserrat, owners of the Tracksuit of the Games award. Those silver and black belters will go for a mint on eBay.