The Queen's Platinum Jubilee is finally here and after 70 years on the throne, it is an occasion to be celebrated and that it is. From a platinum party at the place to a very special pageant, there's lots going on from Thursday, June 2, to Sunday, June 5.
But one of the most important traditions of all is Trooping the Colour. The military parade is usually held annually and commemorates Queen Elizabther's “official” birthday which usually falls on the second Saturday of June.
However, this year it has been brought forward to Thursday (June 2). It will see more than 1,500 officers and soldiers and 350 horses from the Household Division stage the display on Horse Guards Parade in central London, with the colour trooped by the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards.
READ MORE:
Some 400 musicians from 10 military bands and corps of drums will march amid pomp and pageantry. The royal family will travel from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to the parade ground in carriages, with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal on horseback.
Plans are said to be in place either for the Queen briefly to inspect the troops on the parade ground or from the balcony with the Duke of Kent, or to only appear on the balcony with the royal family for a special flypast afterwards. If the Queen does delegate her salute duties at Trooping to another family member, it will be the first time she has done so in her 70-year reign.
On Saturday, Prince William took the salute as he oversaw the final preparations ahead of Queen's birthday celebrations. Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, William and the Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will be on the balcony for the flypast.
The Queen limited the numbers to working royals, meaning the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be there.But her Cambridge great-grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and her two youngest grandchildren, the Wessexes’ children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, will be present.
A six-minute display by more than 70 aircraft will include the Red Arrows and the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Those interested in watching the royal event can do so on BBC One on Thursday. The event itself is expected to begin at 10.00am, with the coverage ending at 1.15pm. It is reported that the Royal Family will make their traditional appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony, with the Royal Air Force flypast timed to coincide with this at 1pm.
Then in the evening, more than 3,000 beacons will be set ablaze across the UK and the Commonwealth in tribute to the Queen which will be shown at 8pm also in BBC One.
A network of flaming tributes will stretch throughout the country, with beacons at sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen’s estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK’s four highest peaks. The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize.
The principal beacon outside the Palace – a 21-metre tall Tree of Trees sculpture for the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative – will be illuminated by a senior member of the royal family, and images will be projected onto the Palace.
