Queen's Platinum Jubilee plans unveiled by Buckingham Palace - BBC News
A concert at Buckingham Palace will be among the celebrations to mark the Queen's 70-year reign.
Details of celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee next June have been revealed by Buckingham Palace.

There will be a four-day Bank Holiday weekend from Thursday, 2 June to Sunday, 5 June, with events including a pageant with 5,000 performers.

A live concert at Buckingham Palace, called the Platinum Party at the Palace, will feature "the world's biggest entertainment stars".

And the Queen will head to the Derby, at Epsom Downs, with her family.

The events will mark the Queen's 70-year reign, a milestone she will have reached on 6 February next year - becoming the first British Monarch to do so.

As with the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilees, the first week in June has been chosen for the celebratory weekend, with the summer offering a better chance of good weather than February.

The Queen toured the country for her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Duke of Edinburgh by her side

Her 60th anniversary also saw royal barge Gloriana lead a historic flotilla of 1,000 boats on the Thames

Prince Philip joined the Queen on board the Royal Barge Spirit of Chartwell as part of the celebrations in 2012

The Queen will be 96 at the time of the Platinum Jubilee events, taking place exactly a year from now.

To create the four-day weekend, the late May Spring Bank Holiday that year will be moved to 2 June and an additional Bank Holiday on 3 June created.

The first day of the long weekend, the Thursday, will see Trooping the Colour held in full for the first time since the pandemic. There will be more than 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians taking part.

Also that day, Platinum Jubilee beacons will be lit across the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories. For the first time, the capital cities of Commonwealth countries will also light beacons.

On the second day of the Bank Holiday weekend a Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen's reign will be held at St Paul's Cathedral.

On the Saturday, the Queen will be joined by members of the Royal Family at the Derby, held at Epsom Downs. The live concert at the palace will take place that evening.

Performers have yet to be named, but it is billed as bringing together some of the world's biggest stars to celebrate the most significant and joyous moments from the Queen's seven-decade reign.

The Sunday will see communities take part in the Big Jubilee Lunch, with street parties held across the UK. That day's events will also include the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, which will feature 5,000 people from the UK and the Commonwealth performing around the area of Buckingham Palace. It will include street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival and costume, the Palace said.

There will also be year-long Platinum Jubilee celebrations throughout the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and around the world.

And throughout the year, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family will travel around the country taking part in engagements to mark the occasion - but the focal point will be the special June weekend.

The Queen is expected to attend all of the events herself - other than the Big Jubilee Lunch.

BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said: "There has been some slowing down for several years, but she is still very engaged.

"Certainly she and the Palace will be hoping this will be an opportunity for people across the United Kingdom to show their continued commitment to, and regard and affection for, this particular monarch."

The Queen taking part in a Silver Jubilee walkabout in 1977

The Queen marked her Golden Jubilee in 2002

As for the Queen, she is "forward-looking" and will see it as an opportunity for herself, her family and the wider population "to have a bit of a celebration", he added - especially after what has been a difficult year for her family, with the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

News of the planned events came as gun salutes were fired across London on Wednesday to mark the 68th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, when she was 27.

The coronation, at Westminster Abbey, took place 16 months after she acceded to the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI, to allow for a period of mourning and for the necessary preparations to take place.

14 November 1973 - The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips

29 July 1981 - The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer

29 April 2011 - The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton