BRITAIN will blaze with beautiful Jubilee Beacons to mark Her Majesty’s 70 years on the throne.
Almost 3,000 will be lit across the UK and abroad on Friday to mark Queen Elizabeth’s record-breaking reign.
Here’s your essential guide to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend – from beacons to the star-studded concertCelebrations will be both big and small, with community groups, charities and local councils throughout the UK and overseas territories taking part in lighting ceremonies to mark the start of Jubilee weekend.
The principal beacon will be lit in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace by a senior royal on Thursday evening.
It will take the form of a stunning lighting installation with the Queen’s Green Canopy Tree Of Trees sculpture and projections on to the front of Buckingham Palace.
For the first time beacons will be lit in all 54 Commonwealth member states, with the first ones expected to be lit in Tonga and Samoa, and the final one in Belize.
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Councils, communities and organisations up and down the country have applied to host lighting events and there is still time to register yours at queensjubileebeacons.com, as the deadline is tomorrow.
There is a long tradition of celebrating Royal Jubilees, weddings and coronations with beacons. The last time beacons were lit was for the Queen’s 90th birthday in 2016.
The Royal Family will gather at 9.25pm for the lighting of the first beacon.
At 9.30pm, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Anchor Chain will begin the ceremonies in the UK.
At 9.45pm beacons will be lit throughout the UK including at major landmarks such as Windsor Great Park, Sandringham, Balmoral, the Angel of the North and Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will light a beacon on one of the towers.
At the Tower of London, a beacon will be positioned above the Middle Drawbridge at the famous fortress.
Beacons in overseas territories will be lit at 9.15 local time.
At 9.40, buglers up and down the country will play a specially written call entitled Majesty to announce the lighting of the beacons.
Community choirs will accompany lightings by singing a song composed for the occasion, A Life Lived With Grace. Choirs nationwide, including the Military Wives Choir, will join in.
Almost 3,000 beacons will be lit across the UK and abroad on Friday to mark Queen Elizabeth’s record-breaking reign
Faith leaders from the nine major religions will also light beacons.
Most 56 National Coastwatch stations around the country, from Skegness in Lincolnshire to Boscastle in Cornwall, will be lighting beacons and participating in laser and flag shows.
The NHS Sustainable Beacon project will see the Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust light a more environmentally-friendly beacon in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.
Old and broken hospital beds will be melded into a crown-shaped beacon, to be illuminated in a display.
Instead of the traditional gas flame, the blue light of the NHS will shine across the metal sculpture. Meanwhile, for four nights over the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, Illuminated River, the world’s longest public artwork, will be lit in a sequence of colour and light.
It will be unveiled at sunset on Thursday and run each night until Monday.
Nine central London bridges will be synchronised with LED lights as part of the display.
Meanwhile, Durham, Ely, Lichfield and Peterborough cathedrals will be lighting up red, white and blue in honour of the Jubilee.
The Shard in London will run a celebratory light display every evening of the weekend.
The National Trust is lighting 26 beacons including wood braziers and timber bonfires.
Locations include historic beacon sites Avebury in Wiltshire and Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire.
Queen in concert…
WHO can forget the sight of Queen rocker Brian May playing his guitar on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Golden Jubilee in 2002?
And Queen are back, with Adam Lambert, to open the star-studded Platinum Jubilee concert on Saturday evening.
Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Golden Jubilee in 2002
Motown royalty Diana Ross will close the show in her first UK live performance in 15 years.
But Brian is keeping shtum about how he and his bandmates will beat his golden opening of two decades ago.
He says: “Twenty years after playing the Queen’s glorious Golden Jubilee we’re very happy to be invited again. There was a moment when I wondered, after the Buckingham Palace roof, where can you go? Well, you will see!”
Up to 22,000 members of the public, including 10,000 who won tickets in a ballot and 7,500 key workers, will see the concert live on three hi-tech stages built around the Queen Victoria monument at the end of the Mall.
The three stages are linked by walkways to create a 360-degree experience in front of Buckingham Palace and The Queen Victoria Memorial.
Seventy columns — one for each year of the Queen’s reign — will be illuminated to light up Buckingham Palace.
Members of the Royal Family will arrive for the Platinum Party at the Palace concert at 7.40pm. Princes Charles and William will pay tribute to the Queen, who will be watching it on TV at home in Windsor.
Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp present the two-and-a-half hour event on BBC1, iPlayer and Radio 2.
Kirsty will be in St James’s Park, while Roman is backstage with a galaxy of stars.
Motown royalty
Alicia Keys, Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel, Elbow and George Ezra will share the three stages with Duran Duran, Andrea Bocelli, Mimi Webb, Sam Ryder, Jax Jones, Celeste, Nile Rodgers, Sigala and Diversity.
Stars from stage, screen and sport will appear at the event and on film, including Sir David Attenborough, Emma Raducanu, David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Dame Julie Andrews, The Royal Ballet and British former Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds.
Sir Elton John has recorded a special performance, while Eurovision hero Sam Ryder, fresh from scoring the UK’s remarkable second place in Italy with Space Man, will be live on stage.
The evening will mark the amazing achievements of Her Majesty’s extraordinary reign in fashion, sport, the environment, pop music and musicals.
Eurovision hero Sam Ryder, fresh from scoring the UK’s remarkable second place in Italy with Space Man, will be live on stage
There will be performances from The Phantom of The Opera, Hamilton, Six, The Lion King and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Motown royalty Diana Ross will close the show in her first UK live performance in 15 years.
She says: “I’ve had the honour of meeting The Queen many times throughout my life, including when I was with my family.
“Her Majesty has and continues to be such an incredible inspiration to so many across the world and I was absolutely delighted to receive an invitation to perform on such a momentous and historic occasion.”
And Sir Rod Stewart says: “Queen Elizabeth has given incredible service to the United Kingdom over the last 70 years.
“I’m delighted to be able to join her in celebrating her Platinum Jubilee with the Party At The Palace.
“She has demonstrated to the world what a special person she is and how lucky we are to have her.
“This will be a momentous occasion.”