Puddings and pageants for Queen’s platinum jubilee

A list of events and initiatives being organised to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year on the throne has been unveiled.

In her Christmas message, the Queen hoped her jubilee ‘will be an opportunity for people everywhere to enjoy a sense of togetherness’. Picture: Reuters

Parades, puddings and tree planting are just some of the ways Britain is being invited to come together to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

A list of events and initiatives being organised to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year on the throne has been unveiled by Buckingham Palace.

Alongside jubilee staples such as Trooping the Colour, a service of thanksgiving and a pop concert at the palace, there will be a public pageant with climate change at its heart and beacons lit in every Commonwealth capital.

The Queen will become the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee on February 6.

The British government has created a four-day bank holiday weekend from Thursday, June 2, to Sunday, June 5.

A nationwide baking competition is being held to find a new pudding, dedicated to the Queen, for the nation to enjoy during the bank holiday celebrations.

Jane Dunn, food blogger and best-selling cookbook author, is one of eight judges, who include Mary Berry and Monica Galetti.

Dunn said she would be “looking for a pudding that is remembered” alongside other royal favourites. “I make Victoria Sponge monthly and I love a good coronation chicken sandwich so it’s definitely stuck with me and I hope the chosen pudding will as well,” she said.

Dunn said she would like “something new and inventive”.

On June 2, the Queen’s Birthday Parade will see more than 1000 soldiers, horses and army musicians perform a Trooping of the Colour ceremony in central London. The next day, there will be a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral and on June 4 the BBC is to host a concert called Platinum at the Palace.

On June 5, people can apply to hold neighbourhood parties as part of a nationwide “Big Jubilee Lunch”. More than 200,000 such events are expected.

There are already initiatives and events before the holiday weekend that have begun celebrating the Queen’s legacy.

More than 60,000 trees have been planted in Britain, through the Queen’s Green Canopy project, in the two months since the planting season began. The public are being asked to “plant a tree for the jubilee”, with every planting recorded on a digital map to be presented to the Queen at the end of the year. The project is generating the planting of large, celebration trees, new majestic avenues of trees, urban planting and expansive new forests that will benefit future generations. It is also working to protect 70 ancient trees and woodlands that are a valuable part of Britain’s heritage and history.

A “gallop through history” at the Royal Windsor Horse Show arena will see more than 500 ­horses and 1000 performers create a 90-minute piece of theatre, staged on May 12-15, that will include actors, musicians and global equestrian displays. The Queen is to attend the final performance.

In her Christmas Day message, the Queen said she hoped her ­jubilee “will be an opportunity for people everywhere to enjoy a sense of togetherness”.

The Times