- More than 70,000 ‘Big Lunches’ and events planned across the country
- Activities for children released including Colour a Corgi
Big screens will be set up outdoors in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff so thousands of people can come together to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.
Screens broadcasting the events will be placed in The Mall in London, Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens and in Cardiff’s Bute Park.
From street parties and ‘Big Jubilee Lunches’ happening across the UK, to London’s Trooping the Colour, Service of Thanksgiving, concert and pageant, the nation and commonwealth will come together over four days to mark The Queen’s 70-year reign.
The screens are organised by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) which today is launching an activity pack for children to help them learn about The Queen’s reign, including articles about how the country has changed in the last seven decades, opportunities to colour in a corgi or crown and bunting to decorate for street parties.
More than 70,000 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in the four UK nations over the weekend, with an expected ten million people set to sit down with their neighbours on Sunday 5 June, to celebrate Her Majesty’s momentous jubilee.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said:
In less than a month we will come together as a nation and Commonwealth to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s 70-year reign. No other British monarch has reached this milestone and we will celebrate it with tradition, pomp and circumstance.
I hope that people and communities across the country will come together to pay tribute to Her Majesty – whether that be to watch on big screens or toasting Her Majesty at a Big Jubilee Lunch with their neighbours or coming together in their local village hall.
In London, screens broadcasting the BBC’s live feed will be placed down The Mall and in St James’s Park for members of the public to watch the events taking place across the Bank Holiday weekend.
In Edinburgh, screens will be placed in Princes Street Gardens with thousands able to host picnics and watch the celebrations with a backdrop of Edinburgh Castle and entertainment provided by the Royal Marines and local performers.
The Welsh Capital is also inviting families to bring their Jubilee Picnic and enjoy an afternoon in Bute Park. The beautiful Grade I listed park in the heart of Cardiff’s city centre will provide the perfect venue for an afternoon of Jubilee celebrations as families are invited to enjoy the Jubilee Pageant on a large screen along with entertainment from the bandstand.
In Northern Ireland, a design competition will see primary school children create a ‘snapshot of Northern Ireland’, with the winning entry to be manufactured into a rug by leading company Ulster Carpets and sent to Her Majesty the Queen. In addition, The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will receive Northern Ireland Platinum Jubilee Hampers showcasing over 50 top quality local food and drink producers, and representing the appreciation of the people of Northern Ireland for Her Majesty’s dedicated service.
Events taking place in London will be broadcast on TV networks BBC, Sky and ITV. In a further move to mark the occasion, the BBC is offering local communities a special one-off TV Licence dispensation so they can screen it on a big screen they organise themselves.
The plans will allow those celebrating with events arranged in town halls, community centres and streets to show live programmes throughout the weekend without needing to purchase a licence.
UK Government Minister for Scotland Iain Stewart said:
Watching the celebrations on the big screens the UK Government is setting up around the country is a great way for people to really get involved and soak up the atmosphere of this fabulous occasion.
We’re looking forward to a great family-focused event in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh where people can bring a picnic, enjoy the weekend’s festivities and raise a glass to Her Majesty to mark her 70-year reign.
Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said:
The Jubilee is going to be a fantastic occasion and I know people up and down Wales will be celebrating with family or community events.
Whether you are watching events on the big screen at Bute Park, at a picnic in Colwyn Bay or at the carnival in Welshpool I hope as many people as possible take the opportunity to get involved in this incredible milestone in UK history.
NIO Minister of State Conor Burns said:
It’s fantastic to see the array of events planned to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee across the UK.
Through the NIO’s Platinum Jubilee Hamper and the rug competition, we are proud to highlight Northern Ireland food, drink and manufacturing expertise while creating these special gifts which I hope Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family will enjoy.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie says:
I am delighted we are helping to bring people together to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and I’m looking forward to seeing our coverage on big screens up and down the UK, as we mark this wonderful occasion.
Further info
The Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend begins on Thursday 2 June with Trooping the Colour, which sees more than 1,500 soldiers and musicians, around 240 horses and the Irish Guards mascot, Turlough Mor the Irish Wolfhound, coming together for the traditional Queen’s birthday parade.
Around 7,000 members of the public will watch the ceremony as they return to Horse Guards Parade for the first time since the pandemic. Beacons will be lit throughout the UK and the Commonwealth in the evening.
On Friday 3 June, a Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen’s 70-year reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral. The service will include Bible readings, anthems, prayers and congregational hymns to express thanks for Her Majesty’s reign, faith and service.
Great Paul, the largest church bell in the country, will be rung. The bell, which was made in 1882, fell silent due to a broken mechanism in the 1970s. Following its restoration in 2021, this will be the first royal occasion in which Great Paul has been rung. The ringing of Great Paul will be followed by a peal of bells to celebrate.
On Saturday 4 June, a number of stars will take part in the Platinum Party at the Palace. Hosted by Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp, 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.
The celebrations will conclude on Sunday 5 June with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant. Thousands of performers from across the country and Commonwealth will process down The Mall to tell the story of The Queen’s 70-year reign in a spectacular procession. Artists and the communities they work with will interpret different chapters of Her life.
The pageant will feature a giant dragon puppet the size of a double decker bus, corgis, acrobats, unicorns, dancers and circus acts. The grand finale will feature 150 ‘national treasures’ including Ed Sheeran who, along with members of the viewing public invited to become part of the performance, will gather and pay tribute to The Queen.
Across the country, millions will sit down to a Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday afternoon with more than 200,000 local events – including screenings, street parties and lunches – planned. Big lunches take place in communities across the UK every year as people come together in celebration to share lunch. Each year they raise more than £8 million for local charities.
More than 8.5 million took part in the Big Jubilee Lunch for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
From back garden barbecues to full-blown street parties, there are events planned in neighbourhoods and communities right across the UK and it’s not too late to knock on a neighbour’s door and join the nation in celebration. Big Jubilee Lunch themes being planned include red, white and blue and dancing through the decades with a world record attempt for the longest street party and the biggest Big Jubilee Lunch.
Across the Commonwealth and the rest of the world, more than 600 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in more than 70 countries – from Greenland to New Zealand.
Notes to editors:
You can find bunting, colour a corgi and colour a crown as well as recipes on the DCMS Platinum Jubilee website, including more than 3,000 local events: www.platinumjubilee.gov.uk
Big screens will be placed in The Mall and St James’s Park in London and in Cardiff and Edinburgh for Trooping, the Platinum Party at the Palace and for Pageant.
The big screen locations in London are not ticketed but capacity is limited.
There will be other locations to watch the events locally. Around 60 local sites can be found on DCMS’s Events Map
In London the screens will be provided as below:
Saturday 4th June – Platinum Party at the Palace
- St James’s Park
- The Mall
Sunday 5th June – The Platinum Jubilee Pageant
- St James’s Park
- The Mall
- Whitehall
There are no screens provided for St Paul’s.
The public are encouraged to check the TFL website before making plans to travel to London as routes are expected to be very busy.
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