David Zolkwer was its artistic director, with music direction by Katie Noonan. Live musical performers included Christine Anu, Delta Goodrem, Katie Noonan, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Ruel who performed "Golden Years" as the closing act. The ceremony transmitted live on Channel 7 attracted a peak viewing audience of over 2 million in Australia. Closing ceremony The closing ceremony was held at Carrara Stadium on Sunday 15 April and was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide at a cost of AU$30 million. Australian pop stars Guy Sebastian, Samantha Jade, Dami Im, Ricki Lee and The Veronicas were among the performers. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, declared the Games closed and passed the Commonwealth Games flag to Birmingham, England which will host the 2022 Games. The Games Participating Commonwealth Games Associations There were 71 Commonwealth Games Associations competing at 2018 Commonwealth Games. Maldives were scheduled to participate, but in October 2016 they withdrew from the Commonwealth. The Gambia returned to the Commonwealth Games after being readmitted as a Commonwealth Games Federation member on 31 March 2018. It marked the last time that Swaziland participated in the games before being renamed as Eswatini. Number of athletes by Commonwealth Games Association Sports The 2018 Commonwealth Games featured 18 different sports encompassing 23 disciplines and 275 events. In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. The regulations stated that from the 26 approved sports administered by Commonwealth Governing Bodies, a minimum of ten core sports and maximum of seventeen sports must be included in any Commonwealth Games schedule. The approved sports included the 10 core sports: athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball (for women), rugby sevens, squash, swimming and weightlifting. Integrated disabled competitions were also scheduled for the Games in six sports: swimming, athletics, cycling, table tennis, powerlifting and lawn bowls. Along with these events for the first time EAD events in triathlon were held, with the medals added to the final tally for each nation. A record 38 para events were contested at these games. On 8 March 2016, beach volleyball was announced as the 18th sport. The program was broadly similar to that of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, with the major changes being the dropping of judo, the reintroduction of basketball, the debut of women's rugby sevens and beach volleyball. On 7 October 2016, it was announced seven new events for women were added to the sport