A four-day weekend, a pageant and a concert announced for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee
By Rob Picheta and Max Foster, CNN
Britain’s royal family has announced a four-day holiday weekend in June 2022 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II‘s 70th year on the throne, with a program of events featuring a parade, street parties and a live concert at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen, already the longest-serving monarch in Britain’s history, will become the first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, with royal engagements to mark the occasion expected throughout the year.
The Jubilee plans were revealed by the Palace on Wednesday, and feature a full slate of events in June that will likely be attended by the public.
A parade, known as the Trooping the Colour, will begin the extended Bank Holiday weekend on Thursday June 2. The event usually takes place each year on the Queen’s birthday, but has been canceled in each of the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Later in the weekend, beacons will be lit across the UK, the Queen will attend the Epsom Derby horse race, and a music concert will take place at Buckingham Palace. A similar event was staged in 2012 during the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee.
Throughout the rest of the year, the Queen and other members of the family will make visits to various parts of the UK.
And on the final day of the Jubilee weekend, Britons will be encouraged to have street parties to celebrate the occasion. The festivities will conclude with a pageant at Buckingham Palace.
The events “will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone,” the Palace said.
The Queen ascended to the throne in 1952 and became the country’s longest-serving monarch six years ago. She will be 96 when she completes the seventh decade of her reign, a milestone which officially falls on February 6. Royal celebrations are typically postponed until the summer to allow for better weather.
She became a widow in April when her husband, Prince Philip, died aged 99. Next year’s Jubilee will be her first without Philip.
Official royal events have been scrapped or scaled down since last March, when the UK first entered lockdown. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that rules could virtually return to normal later this month, but a recent rise in cases in the country has thrown those plans into uncertainty.
