We’re now less than four months away from the moment Elizabeth II makes history and becomes the only British Monarch to rule for seven decades.
While the 70th anniversary of The Queen’s historic reign falls on February 6th 2022, events are planned across the UK and the Commonwealth throughout the year with the biggest celebrations taking place over the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June 2022. Those events were in the spotlight this week as organisers revealed more of their ambitions for marking this milestone like no other. Every week, Royal Central rounds up the latest Jubilee news as the countdown continues and those major events are where we start this time round.
One billion people watching
One of the organisers of the four day spectacle in London in June 2022 has promised that the pageant planned for next summer will be the biggest Jubilee event ever. Nicholas Coleridge, who is also chair of the Victoria and Albert Museum, was speaking at the Conservative Party conference when he revealed the scale of the celebrations currently being planned.
He compared the pageant to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, saying Elizabeth II’s Platinum milestone will be ”larger we think even than that that was put on for Queen Victoria”. Around 6,500 people from all 54 Commonwealth countries are expected to take part in the pageant. Huge crowds are expected in London for the celebrations with even more joining in at home. Nicholas Coleridge told the conference that the BBC is expecting ”up to a billion people” to watch the weekend’s events.
Anne gets busy on The Queen’s Canopy
The Princess Royal has long had a reputation as the hardest working member of the Royal Family and she’s put in the hours this week to help build a lasting legacy to her mother’s long reign. Anne has taken part in several high profile plantings for The Queen’s Green Canopy, the network of trees now being put in place across the UK and the Commonwealth to mark the Platinum Jubilee.
During her first overseas visit since the pandemic, the Princess Royal planted a tree in Paris, at the home of the British Ambassador to France. On her return to England, she headed to a school in Worcester to help them with their Canopy planning. Anne planted a tree at St Barnabas Church of England Primary School and heard from pupils about learning from nature as they continue their Jubilee project.
Passing on the baton
The Earl of Wessex also got involved in plans to mark mum’s milestone as he joined The Queen at a ceremony signalling the start of the final countdown to the Commonwealth Games which take place in Jubilee year.
The XXII Games take place in Birmingham from July 28th until August 8th 2022 and will be another part of the ongoing celebrations woven through the year. The Queen and Prince Edward were presented with the baton that will travel 90,000 miles around the Commonwealth between now and the opening ceremony at a special event at Buckingham Palace. A letter written by The Queen to the Commonwealth, which won’t be shared until next year, was locked inside the baton which features a streak of platinum to mark the Jubilee.
There’s more news on the countdown to the royal celebrations of 2022 next week.
