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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Phil Norris

Queen's Platinum jubilee weekend spectacular - latest day-by-day guide

The nation is less than four weeks away from celebrating the Queen's 70-year reign with a four-day bank holiday weekend spectacular. Events will take place from streets across the UK to the centre of royal London.

Flags will be fluttered, beacons will be lit, and glasses will be raised to Her Majesty for her Platinum Jubilee with much of the country coming together to salute the 96-year-old monarch. Below, we look at the latest information as the clock ticks down to the celebratory weekend.

Thursday, June 2

Trooping the Colour will see the Queen's Birthday Parade start at 11am. More than 1,200 officers and soldiers from the Household Division will put on a display of military pageantry on Horse Guards Parade.

The colour will be trooped by 1st Battalion, Irish Guards and there will be hundreds of Army musicians and around 240 horses. This event has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for more than 260 years.

Trooping The Colour is the Queen's annual birthday parade (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

A Royal Gun Salute will be fired at the event. Seated viewing for Trooping at Horse Guards Parade has now sold out. But you will be able to see the troops parade to and from Horse Guards Parade between Buckingham Palace and the parade ground.

Large screens will also be set up in St James' Park and there will be coverage on BBC and Sky, as well as overseas.

After the parade and when the Royal Procession has returned to Buckingham Palace, the Royal Family will appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. This will coincide with a flypast.

Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan will NOT appear on the balcony (Karwai Tang/WireImage)

It has been revealed that The Queen has decided that The Duke of York and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not join the rest of the family on the Buckingham Palace balcony to mark Her Majesty's historic Platinum Jubilee next month.

The monarch’s decision to only include royals carrying out official public duties was taken “after careful consideration”, palace sources have detailed. The current line up of senior royals includes The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Earl and Countess of Wessex and The Princess Royal will be present on the balcony.

The UK's tradition of celebrating Royal Jubilees, Weddings and Coronations with the lighting of beacons will continue for the Platinum Jubilee. The Principal beacon, involving The Tree of Trees (a 21m high 'tree' constructed of 350 smaller trees), will be lit in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace at 9pm.

Friday, June 3

St Paul's Cathedral in London (Getty Images)

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. The Service starts at 11.30am and Great Paul will be rung between 10.50am to 10.55am followed by a peal of bells.

Saturday, June 4

Roman Kemp (Getty Images)

Hosts Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp will lead live coverage of the Platinum Party at the Palace and air live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and across the BBC network from 8.00pm to 10.30pm.

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.

Reporters across the UK will cover the celebration, including Jermaine Jenas at Buckingham Palace, Gethin Jones in Wales, Carol Kirkwood in Scotland, and Holly Hamilton in Northern Ireland.

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 Queen and members of the Royal Family, will attend the Derby at Epsom Downs.

Sunday, June 5

A musical tribute by Ed Sheeran, puppet corgis and a giant 3D wire bust of the Queen are all set to feature in a huge carnival to mark the final day of the Platinum Jubilee weekend.

On Sunday June 5, the last day of the special four-day weekend, the “People’s Pageant” will take place against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace and its surrounding streets during the afternoon. The enormous parade is set to be watched by up to a billion people across the globe, with more than 10,000 people being involved in staging the spectacle.

Highlights will include an aerial artist suspended under a vast helium balloon, known as a heliosphere, bearing the image of the Queen Other key moments will be a giant oak tree flanked with maypole dancers, a huge moving wedding cake sounding out Bollywood hits, a towering dragon and three-storey-high beasts.

At one stage, the Queen will be depicted in her younger days with a 20ft puppet of a youthful and carefree princess, surrounded by a pack of mischievous puppet corgis. Meanwhile Ed Sheeran will appear on stage to lead a special tribute to the Queen.

Other celebrities confirmed to be taking part throughout the day include Sir Cliff Richard, Dame Shirley Bassey, Kate Moss, Jeremy Irons, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Gary Lineker, Rosie Jones, Kadeena Cox, Alan Titchmarsh, Heston Blumenthal, James Martin, Bill Bailey and Gok Wan.

The Time of Our Lives will celebrate seven decades of culture, music and fashion, with Daleks, iconic cars from the James Bond films and celebrities such as Sir Cliff and Dame Shirley all having starring roles. The third act, Let’s Celebrate, will tell the story of the Queen’s life in 12 chapters, with nods to her corgis and her beloved horses.

More than 60,000 people have registered to host Big Jubilee Lunches on the Platinum celebration weekend, with events ranging from world record attempts for the longest street party to back garden BBQ’s and everything in between.

Over ten million people across the UK are expected to be joining the celebrations to share friendship, food and fun at Big Jubilee Lunches as part of this nationwide act of community friendship. People across the world are also joining in 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.

The Gold State Coach at the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace (Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

The Gold State Coach is to lead the Platinum Jubilee Pageant procession, evoking the image of a young Queen waving from in its windows on her Coronation Day using archive footage. Film recorded on June 2 1953 as the monarch travelled in the coach on the day she was crowned will be shown using advanced technology on the remodelled windows of the opulent 18th century carriage on the final day of the festivities in June.

It will be the first time the intricately-decorated 260-year-old Gold State Coach, which was built in 1762, has made an appearance on the streets of London for 20 years, since the Golden Jubilee. Made of giltwood, a thin layer of gold leaf over wood, it is seven metres long, weighs four tonnes and is 3.6 metres tall, and because of its weight and suspension is only ever used at a walking pace.

Drawn by eight Windsor Grey horses, the grand carriage, led by the Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry, will begin the spectacular carnival Pageant finale on Sunday June 5 as the procession makes it way along a 3km route. The bells of Westminster Abbey will peel just as they did on Coronation Day.

The Pageant, which starts at 2.30pm and finishes with a finale at the Queen Victoria Memorial ending at 5pm

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