No monarch has ruled Great Britain longer than Elizabeth II. For the platinum anniversary, the palace is planning a multi-day festival with many highlights. But there are also shadows hanging over the royal family.
London – Hardly any Briton can remember a time without her: The 70th throne jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (95) this year is to be celebrated in Great Britain for four days.
Buckingham Palace has now presented the exact plans for the spectacle, which is to take place despite the corona pandemic.
King George VI died on February 6, 1952, and his daughter Princess Elizabeth became queen overnight. She got the news on a trip to Kenya. She quickly returned to London. The shy 25-year-old is now the longest ruling monarch in Great Britain.
Equestrian show with 500 horses
“To celebrate this unprecedented anniversary, events and initiatives will take place throughout the year, culminating in a four-day long weekend from June 2nd to 5th,” said the palace’s message for the platinum anniversary. The prelude is a riding show with 500 horses in mid-May in Windsor, where the Queen, as always, organizes the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
She hopes the anniversary year will be “an opportunity for people everywhere to feel a sense of togetherness,” the Queen recently said in her Christmas address. But the queen also showed the hardships of the past year. The death in April of her husband, Prince Philip, to whom she was married for 73 years, had hit her hard. In addition, there were health problems that forced Elizabeth to slow down. She looked serious, her cheeks much narrower than usual.
Anger about her second oldest son Prince Andrew (61), who is facing a civil lawsuit over allegations of abuse in the United States, could also cast a shadow over the anniversary year. He denies the allegations, but the damage to his reputation is significant. And the ongoing dispute between various royals with Prince Harry (37) and his wife Meghan (40) is a burden for the royal family. This year, of all times, Harry wants to publish his memoirs, in which further tips against the family and unwelcome details from their private life are expected.
Hundreds of guards
The grand celebration coincides with the Queen’s official birthday feast on June 2nd, traditionally the Trooping the Color Parade in central London. The parade, in which hundreds of guard soldiers litigate from Buckingham Palace to the large Horse Guards Parade parade ground – led by the Queen and other royals – had to be canceled in the past two years due to the corona pandemic. The Queen’s real birthday is April 21st.
Another highlight of the celebrations is, according to the announcement, a live concert hosted by the BBC on June 4th with thousands of viewers with “some of the greatest entertainment stars in the world”. The most important moments from Elizabeth’s reign are to be celebrated. The royal festival will end on June 5th with a gigantic street festival in the British capital and a procession of 200 silk flags, on which children-made works of art on the subject of climate change are to be depicted.
The importance of environmental protection to the British royal family is shown by a campaign entitled “The Queen’s Green Canopy”: People are encouraged to plant trees all over the country. The Queen proves that she still has a sense of humor despite 70 years of conscientious fulfillment of duties, with the announcement of a competition for the best dessert recipe (Platinum Pudding Recipe). dpa
