Bank Holiday

There will be a special bank holiday for the Diamond Jubilee. The 2012 late May bank holiday will be moved to Monday 4 June 2012 and an additional Jubilee bank holiday will be on Thursday 5 June 2012.

Schools in England and Wales will be able to close on Tuesday 5 June 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.


The Big Lunch

The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun.

This year it happened on Sunday 5 June when over a million people took part. Next year it falls on the same weekend as The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday 3rd June 2012. A record number of people are expected to take part. Make sure you’re one of them!

A Big Lunch can be anything from a few neighbours getting together in the garden or on the street, to a full blown party with food, music and decoration that quite literally stops the traffic.

To find out more click HERE.


Diamond Jubilee Pageant

At high water in the afternoon of Sunday 3 June 2012, up to a thousand boats muster on the River Thames in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen to lead the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

It will be one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the river. Rowed boats and working boats and pleasure vessels of all shapes and sizes will be beautifully dressed with streamers and Union Jacks, their crews and passengers turned out in their finest rigs. The armed forces, fire, police, rescue and other services are all afloat and there are an exuberance of historic boats, wooden launches, steam vessels and other boats of note.

From the Isle of Wight, the launch ‘Kariat’ and round the world yacht Gipsy Moth IV will be taking part in the pageant. The Lord-Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight and Deputy Lieutenant Peter Grimaldi will be aboard with young cadets.

The flotilla is bolstered with passenger boats carrying up to thirty thousand flag-waving members of the public placed centre stage (or rather mid-river) in this floating celebration of Her Majesty's sixty year reign. The spectacle is further enhanced with music barges, boats spouting geysers and pyrotechnic barges spitting smoke and daytime fireworks. And there will be specially constructed elements like a floating belfry, its chiming bells answered by those from riverbank churches.

To find out more click HERE.


Diamond Jubilee Beacons

A series of beacons will be lit throughout the UK and further afield across the Commonwealth to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.

Back in 2002, over 1,800 beacons were lit to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Communities across the UK and around the globe, including as far flung as Antarctica came together to light a beacon and celebrate this very special occasion.  In 2012, the plan is to have even more with 2,012 being lit, and Her Majesty lighting the National Beacon on Monday 4th June.

To find out more click HERE.


Exhibitions

In 2012 the Royal Collection will hold exhibitions at venues including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. To find out more click HERE.


The National Maritime Museum will open ‘Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames’ in April 2012. It will explore the relationship between the Queen, the City of London and the River Thames. To find out more click HERE.


The National Portrait Gallery will also stage ‘The Queen: Art and Image’, a touring exhibition of images of the Queen. To find out more click HERE.


The Victoria and Albert Museum is holding an exhibition of portraits of The Queen by photographer Cecil Beaton, which will tour around the UK. To find out more click HERE.


Concerts