This year marks the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation as sovereign over the Commonwealth. Surpassed only by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria who reigned for 63 years, she is the longest standing monarch on the British throne. This year, all across the Commonwealth celebrations will take place in honour of her triumphant anniversary.
Here are the ten most interesting festivities:
The Central Weekend – From June 2nd to June 5th, London will be draped in the Union flag for the big weekend celebration
- A day at the races – On Saturday, Britain’s most important horse race, the Derby (recently renamed Investec Derby) will take place at Epsom downs. Her majesty the Queen will join the expected 200,000 attendees to watch the race from the Royal balcony as a kick-off to her weekend celebrations.
Visit www.epsomderby.co.uk for more details
- Breaking bread – Sunday afternoon the 4th annual Big Lunch will be renamed the “The Big Jubilee Lunch” in honour of the Queen’s coronation. A rather recent tradition, the weekend encourages neighbours across the UK to sit down to lunch together. In past years nearly 2 million people have participated.
For more information, visit: www.thebiglunch.com
- Set sail – The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant will take place on the water along the Thames Sunday evening where more than 1,000 boats are expected to gather from across the UK, the Commonwealth and the world. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will travel on the Royal Barge at the centre of the flotilla to Chelsea pier where it will be met by the rest of the Royal family who will all proceed to Tower Bridge. The flotilla is expected to be one of the largest ever assembled on the river.
For the full route and suggested vantage points, go to: www.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org
- Rock the house – Monday’s celebrations will kick off with the BBC Concert at Buckingham Palace. The concert will be broadcast across the country with performances by Shirley Bassey, Alfie Boe, Jools Holland, Jessie J, JLS, Elton John, Tom Jones, Lang Lang, Annie Lennox, Madness, Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard and Ed Sheeran.
- Lighting the way – In line with ancient tradition, the beacons will close the Monday festivities with 2,012 being lit by various communities and individuals across the UK and throughout the Commonwealth. The Queen will light the final beacon outside Buckingham Palace at 10:30pm.
For more on the location of the Beacon lightings, visit: www.diamondjubileebeacons.co.uk
Sights to see
- Tongue and cheek – Having a portrait made to mark an occasion is not a new concept, but making it out of 3,120 cakes is! Konditor & Cook bakery will be creating a giant framed portrait of the Queen as part of the weekend events using 1,000 eggs, 50 kg of butter, 150kg of sugar and 36 kg of marzipan to form her pixilated likeness. The mouth-watering concoction will be displayed in Battersea Park on June 3rd before being cut and dispensed among the party-goers.
- Crowning glory – The Royal Parks contractors will be celebrating the coronation in the literal sense by displaying a large floral crown in St. James Park. Using approximately 13,500 plants in the colours of the coronation crown (sapphires, tourmalines, amethysts, topazes, citrines and gold), the crown took 5 weeks to create and had plants brought in from Cornwall.
- Raise the flags – Ever patriotic, the English have completely dressed the city in bunting. Wander along any street from Surrey to central London and you will be covered by a canopy of red, blue and white.
- The Royals on the balcony – What royal event wouldn’t be complete without the final farewell and photo-op on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. On Tuesday, the final day of celebrations in London, the Queen will attend service at St. Paul’s followed by a procession to the Palace. To keep the focus on the direct line of succession, the Queen will only be accompanied by six members of the royal family including, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry.
- The tour – If you can’t make it to London this weekend but you were hoping to catch a glimpse of the lady-of-honour, hop on her royal tour that will take her to the far stretches of the nation until late July while other members of the Royal family will be touring the Commonwealth to places like Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, India and Mozambique.
Click here for more information on the Royal tour