The closing ceremony of the 2015 Pan American Games took place on Sunday July 26, 2015, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT at the Rogers Centre (Pan Am Dome) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The closing ceremony was produced and directed jointly by three companies B5C Productions, BaAM Productions and FiveCurrents.
The tickets for the ceremony ranged between and .
Production In 2014 Live Nation was announced as a sponsor of the games; organizers stated that the company would leverage its resources to invite Canadian and international acts to perform at the ceremony. On July 15, 2015, organizers confirmed that American hip-hop artist Kanye West would headline the closing ceremony, joined by Pitbull and Serena Ryder. The announcement of West's participation was controversial, as critics and others believed that the closing ceremony should have been headlined by a Canadian artist; over 30,000 signatures were made on a Change.org petition to have him replaced. Mayor of Toronto John Tory, was also criticized for mistakenly referring to West as being a "proud product" of Toronto, despite actually being born in Atlanta.
Program
The cultural portion of the ceremony took place on a stage with a scale model of Toronto's skyline, featuring a medley of dances representing various ethnic communities and music styles of Toronto. Following closing speeches by Ivar Sisniega, vice president of PASO, and Saad Rafi, president of the Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee, as per protocol, the Pan American Sports Organization flag was handed over by John Tory to Luis Castañeda Lossio, Mayor of Lima, Peru, host of the 2019 Pan American Games. This was followed by a cultural presentation by Peru, culminating with a sequence set to La Sarita's song "Carnaval".
Serena Ryder performed "Together We Are One", the official theme of the 2015 Pan American Games, along with her own hit "Stompa". Pitbull's segment featured songs such as "Fireball" and "Give Me Everything". Kanye West opened his set with "Stronger". After calling upon the lights to be turned on, he continued on with a set that included "Power, "Black Skinhead", "Gold Digger", "Touch the Sky", "All Of The Lights" and "Good Life". During his performance of "Good Life", West abruptly threw his microphone up in the air and walked off the stage; his performance had been afflicted by audio issues that caused his microphone to only be audible to television audiences. The ceremony concluded with a fireworks display on the CN Tower.
Flagbearers OrderNationSpanishFrenchFlag bearerSport 1 Argentina ArgentineJulian PinzasKarate 2 Antigua y Barbuda Antigue et BarbudeMiguel FrancisAthletics 3 Aruba ArubaThashaina SerausBowling 4 Bahamas BahamasAthletics 5 Barbados BarbadeRamon GittensAthletics 6 Belice BelizeMark AndersonAthletics 7 Bermuda BermudesPatrick NisbettEquestrian 8 Bolivia BolivieConrrado MoscosoRacquetball 9 Brasil BrésilMiraildes FormigaFootball 10 Chile ChiliÉrika OliveraAthletics 11 Colombia ColombieCaterine IbargüenAthletics 12 Costa Rica Costa RicaDavid JiménezBoxing 13 Cuba CubaMijaín LópezWrestling 14 Dominica DominiqueYordanys DurañonaAthletics 15 Ecuador EquateurMaria SotomayorRacquetball 16 El Salvador SalvadorJorge MerinoKarate 17 Estados Unidos de América États-Unis D'AmeriqueClaressa ShieldsBoxing 18 Granada GrenadeKurt Felix Athletics 19 Guatemala GuatemalaErick BarrondoAthletics 20 Guyana GuyanaPriyanna RamdhaniBadminton 21 Haití HaïtiMarlena Wesh Athletics 22 Honduras HondurasRolando PalaciosAthletics 23 Islas Caimán Îles CaïmansKemar HymanAthletics 24 Islas Vírgenes Británicas Îles Vierges britanniquesChantel MaloneAthletics 25 Islas Vírgenes de los Estados Unidos Îles Vierges des États-UnisClayton Laurent Boxing 26 Jamaica JamaïqueRasheed Dwyer Athletics 27 México MexiquePaola LongoriaRacquetball 28 Nicaragua NicaraguaDalila RugamaAthletics 29 Panamá PanamaEileen GrenchFencing 30 Paraguay ParaguayCamila PirelliAthletics 31 Perú PerouAlexandra GrandeKarate 32 Puerto Rico Porto RicoMónica González RiveraBoxing 33 República Dominicana République dominicaineAna VillanuevaKarate 34 San Cristóbal y Nieves Saint-Christophe-et-NiévèsShenel CrookeAthletics 35 Saint-Vincent-et-les-GrenadinesKineke AlexanderAthletics 36 Santa Lucía Sainte-LucieStephanie Devaux-LovellSailing 37 Surinam SurinameKonstantinos PanagiotidisNOC assistant (volunteer) 38 Trinidad y Tobago Trinité-et-TobagoMikel ThomasAthletics 39 Uruguay UruguayFabricio FormilianoFootball 40 Venezuela VenezuelaRosa RodríguezAthletics 41 Canadá CanadaKia NurseBasketball
Anthems Layla Claire, Ben Heppner and Children's Choirs – "O Canada" Instrumental Version – Anthem of PASO Estefania Castilla Pajares – National Anthem of Peru
References