The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
30th May 2022
30th May 2022
This week commemorates The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and a four-day UK bank holiday weekend of celebration will take place from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June 2022.
On 6th February this year, Her Majesty The Queen became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.
To celebrate this unprecedented anniversary, events and initiatives have already been taking place. The upcoming bank holiday will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the UK to come together to celebrate the historic milestone. The four days of celebrations will include an exciting array of public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s 70 years of service.
The Queen’s Birthday Parade will be held on Thursday 2nd June starting at 10am. The colour will be trooped by the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, and more than 1200 officers and soldiers from the Household Division will put on a display of military pageantry on Horse Guards Parade, together with hundreds of Army musicians and around 240 horses. This annual event has now marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for over 260 years.
During The Queen’s Birthday Parade a Royal Gun Salute will be fired.
Once the parade has ended and the Royal Procession has returned to Buckingham Palace, the Royal Family’s balcony appearance will happen as in previous years. There will also be a Flypast to coincide with the balcony appearance.
There will be an opportunity to watch the event live on television, across the world.
On Thursday 2nd June, over 2000 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories will come together to light a beacon to mark the Jubilee. Beacons will also be lit in each of the capital cities of Commonwealth countries.
The principal beacon lighting will take place in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening. This will take the form of a lighting installation with The Queen’s Green Canopy ‘Tree of Trees’ sculpture and projections onto the front of Buckingham Palace. This innovative new way of taking part in the beacon lighting will reflect the Royal Family’s long history of championing environmental causes.
A Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen’s reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral. Great Paul, the largest church bell in the country, will be rung for the Service. It was made in 1882 but fell silent in the 1970s due to a broken mechanism. It was restored in 2021 and has been rung on 8 occasions since, but this is the first Royal occasion for which it will be rung.
The service will include a new Anthem by Judith Weir, Master of The Queen’s Music, that sets to music words from the third Chapter of the Book of Proverbs.
As part of the central weekend celebrations, Epsom Downs Racecourse will stage the 243rd running of The Derby on Saturday 4th June.
Also on 4th June, hosts Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp will lead live coverage of the Platinum Party at the Palace to be shown live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The celebration will see famous faces from the world of entertainment brought together to perform for a night of musical tributes to celebrate the Jubilee. 22,000 people will attend the event including 10,000 allocated in a public ballot and 5,000 tickets for key workers.
Over 60,000 people have registered to host Big Jubilee Lunches over the weekend, with events ranging from world record attempts for the longest street party to back garden BBQs and everything in between!
As millions of people across the UK sit down to share lunch in their communities, a flagship event will be taking place at The Oval in London where a specially invited audience will share friendship, food and fun together with entertainment at the iconic venue. People are joining in across the world with over 600 international Big Jubilee Lunches being planned throughout the Commonwealth and beyond – from Canada to Brazil, New Zealand to Japan and South Africa to Switzerland.
Evoking the Coronation at the very start of the Platinum Pageant, the Bells of Westminster Abbey will chime, as they did on Coronation Day. As they do so, The Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry will lead The Gold State Coach along a crowd-thronged pageant route back to Buckingham Palace.
The Gold State Coach is used to transport the Monarch on the occasion of their Coronation and Jubilees, and it has not been seen on the streets of London for twenty years.
The Gold State Coach is the Platinum Pageant’s iconic figurehead; a ‘crown jewel’ made yet more awesome by the glittering livery worn by its four pairs of Windsor Greys. Everywhere you look, in the golden sculptures and painted panels, in the uniforms of the postillions, grooms, footmen, attendants and mounted guards, there is rich tradition and history.
The Pageant will bring to life iconic moments from The Queen’s reign as well as showcasing our changing society over the past 70 years. 10,000 people are involved, including the military, over 6,000 volunteers, performers, key workers and 2,500 members of the public.
National treasures and iconic figures from music, film, sport and the arts will take part in the Pageant including much-loved celebrity names, alongside military personnel, key workers and volunteers.
The Armed Forces will also take a leading role in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on Sunday 5th June. Around 1,800 members of Armed Forces personnel, representing the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army and Royal Air Force, will lead Act 1 of the pageant. Six military bands will form part of the military contingent and the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom will be joined representatives from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth nations. The military section of the pageant will involve personnel from regiments and units across the Union, including those with a special relationship with The Queen.
There will be various events taking place in and around Tunbridge Wells to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, these include:
On Friday 3rd June Tunbridge Wells will be hosting their own Royal Parade to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The colourful carnival style parade will begin at the War Memorial at 12.45pm heading towards Dunorlan Park for a fun afternoon jam-packed with family entertainment, music, bars and food stalls.
The itinerary will be:
1pm: Military Parade at Tunbridge Wells War Memorial
1.30pm: Procession to Dunorlan Park
2pm: Big Jubilee Lunch at Dunorlan Park
Throughout the afternoon, there will be plenty of attractions and free performances to enjoy. These will include Caribbean music, The Tunbridge Wells Orpheus Choir, the Royal Scottish Dancing Society, jazz quartet The American Songbook, Kings of Bhangra dance display, a vintage car show, face painting, balloon modelling, a Punch & Judy show and even a fire engine to explore!
Royal Tunbridge Wells Together will be hosting the Royal Tunbridge Wells Cake Off to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee.
Members of the public will be able to sample a variety of free ‘royal themed’ cakes on The Pantiles, created by various town centre businesses. Once sampled, people can then vote for their favourite on Saturday 4th June. Not only will visitors be able to indulge in some free cake, there will also be:
The winner of the competition will be crowned on the bandstand at 3pm.
Some contestants include Kumquat Café, The Cake Shed, The Tunbridge Wells Hotel and The Zero Waste Company.
Tunbridge BID Director Sarah-Jane Adams says: “Giving a foodie twist to the Jubilee celebrations, familiar town centre businesses will be going spoon to spoon as they whip up a royal themed dessert. We hope that members of the public will come along to support them, enjoy the free live music and family friendly activities, and of course – eat free cake!”
Find out more about The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
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