London
The Royal Family has confirmed plans to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next year.
On top of an extra bank holiday in June 2022 there will be a long weekend of events, with Brits being given two days off work to mark Her Majesty’s 70 years of service to the country.
The first bank holiday will see Trooping the Colour staged in full for the first time since the pandemic, with a thanksgiving service taking place at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.
The Saturday will see the Queen attend a day at the races, joined by members of the Royal Family, at the Derby in Epsom Downs, Surrey.
That evening a live concert, called the ‘Platinum Party at the Palace’, will be staged at Buckingham Palace.
Communities across the country will be encouraged to sit down together for a big jubilee lunch on the Sunday with friends, family and neighbours.
A Platinum Jubilee Pageant will also take place in London that day, with 5,000 people from across the Commonwealth combining street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival and costume to celebrate Her Majesty.
Over the course of the weekend beacons will be lit across the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and overseas territories, and bonfires will be lit in each of the capital cities of the Commonwealth.
There will be many more public events and community activities over the long weekend, including national moments of reflection on moments of the Queen’s seven decades of service.
The actual date of her jubilee is February 6, 2022, but the celebrations will take place over a four-day bank holiday weekend from June 2 to 5.
The May bank holiday will be moved to Thursday, June 2 and the extra bank holiday will be on Friday, June 3.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the plans with exactly one year to go until the events begin.
The Queen is the first British monarch to mark a Platinum Jubilee, after acceding to the throne in 1952 when she was 25 years old. She previously celebrated her silver, gold and diamond jubilees.
Queen Elizabeth II watches the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace dressed in a blue and purple suit.
Performers for the live concert have not yet been announced, but it is billed as bringing together some of the world’s biggest entertainment stars.
The extra bank holiday was confirmed in November last year by the Government, with further details expected to be released in the coming months.
The Government and the Royal Household are jointly organising the celebrations. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said: ‘Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee will be a truly historic moment – and one that deserves a celebration to remember.
‘We can all look forward to a special, four-day Jubilee weekend, when we will put on a spectacular, once-in-a-generation show that mixes the best of British ceremonial splendour with cutting edge art and technology.
‘It will bring the entire nation and the Commonwealth together in a fitting tribute to Her Majesty’s reign.’
In keeping with tradition, a Platinum Jubilee medal will be awarded to people who work in public service including the armed forces, the emergency services and the prison services.
This tradition stretches back to the reign of Queen Victoria when an official medal was designed to mark her 50th anniversary on the throne.—AP
