After 15 days of intense competition across co-host cities Jakarta and Palembang, tonight’s event was billed as a celebration of the whole Asian continent.

It was attended by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and featured multiple performances from famous Asian pop groups, including Korean boy bands Super Junior and iKON, Indian singer Siddharth Slathia and Indonesian star Dira Sugandi.

There were also speeches from various Government and sporting officials including the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who officially declared the Games over.

As is tradition, there was also a Parade of Nations and a handover ceremony, when the Asian Games flag was officially given to the next hosts, Hangzhou in China.

As heavy rain poured down on the stadium and lightening periodically lit up the sky, tonight’s Ceremony began with an impressive fireworks display, followed by a rendition of the Indonesian national anthem.

An acrobatic dance performance involving hundreds of drummers then took place, before another fireworks display singled the start of the Parade of Nations.

All the flags of the competing nations were brought in one by one, before all the athletes marched into the stadium as a symbol of Asian unity.

They were then followed by hundreds of Games volunteers as a thank you for their efforts in helping run the event.

By this point the heaviest of the rain had been and gone and the lightning had stopped.

Indonesia’s President Widodo started a series of speeches, though he was not in attendance in the stadium.

The President appeared via video link from the island of Lombok, where, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 100 people just before the Games began.

Speaking in front of a crowd of survivors, he said the “uplifting spirit” they had shown in the face of adversity was inspiring.

After another speech from Widodo’s Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, the OCA President Sheikh Ahmad then stepped up and officially declared the Games over.

The flag handover ceremony then took place, with Chinese Olympic Committee President Gou Zhongwen and Hangzhou Mayor Xu Liyi representing the next Games in 2022, before a traditional Chinese dance was performed as a teaser of what to expect in four years.

Throughout all this, fireworks continued to erupt periodically from the roof and when the final section of the Ceremony, the singing, began, more fireworks were used to both welcome and end each act.

Indonesian pop-rock group Gigi were the first to perform, before Slathia and Denada, followed by the South Korean group iKON.

Each act was greeted by huge cheers from the crowd as they all performed their most famous hits.

The Ceremony was brought to an end by another Korean group in Super Junior, whose act climaxed alongside a huge fireworks display, which at its height largely drowned out the noise inside the stadium.

Earlier in the day, Japan claimed the final gold medal of the competition by winning the mixed team triathlon, but it was China that topped the overall medal table.

They finished with 132 golds, 92 silvers and 65 bronze.

Hosts Indonesia had by far their most successful Asian Games, winning 31 gold medals when their previous best was 11.