This bank holiday weekend, Britain has brought out the red, white, and blue bunting in full force to celebrate Her Majesty’s historic 70th year on the throne.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has prompted the country to hold a four-day royal celebration, with families, schools, and entire communities uniting to honor the British monarch.
The Queen’s Birthday Parade, headed by Prince Charles and accompanied by Prince William and Anne, Princess Royal on horseback, began this morning with the heir inspecting the troops of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, as well as over 1,500 officers and soldiers from the Household Division.
Her Majesty has made one of two appearances on the Buckingham Palace Balcony today, to watch the RAF flypast, which will saw some 71 aircraft soar over The Mall in a historic display featuring Spitfires, Red Arrow Hawks and a Lancaster bomber. The Red Arrows displayed the number 70 in a jaw-dropping formation for Her Majesty.
The show will feature more than three times the number of aircraft which took part in the Queen’s last birthday parade flypast in central London in 2019.
The fleet will take off from military bases around the UK before joining holding patterns around the south-east of England. They will then fly directly down the length of The Mall before the first batch reach Buckingham Palace at 1pm.
But across the country, Britons have been finding their own ways to honour the Queen, by way of street parties, miles of bunting and even scarecrows transformed into members of he royal family.
Windsor in particular looks very colourful for the Platinum festivities, with a huge Union Jack flag and bunting hung up everywhere to welcome those travelling into the royal borough’s train station. The high street is equally as red, white and blue with plenty of flags covering lampposts in the area.
Plenty of homes and pubs have special decorations including balloons and Jubilee posters in the national colours of the United Kingdom.
In Manchester’s Canal Street, the entire street has been covered in Union Jacks and red, white and blue bunting which has been hung from the trees to the bars just above those sat enjoying a bank holiday beverage.
Nell Gwynn’s tearoom in Windsor has a special painting of the Queen placed front and centre in the shop front window, surrounded by some Platinum Jubilee bunting.
Even those not on home soil have enjoyed a touch of Jubilee celebrations to their holidays, with Italian global cruise line, MSC Cruises, based in Geneva, which is currently in Oslo, Norway, presenting a gigantic cake shown to all those on board. They have also displayed Platinum Jubilee flags on the communal areas.
Ian Sherwood, a councillor from Swaffham, Norfolk, shared his pictures of the 9×16 ft (2.7×4.8m), which sat in the lobby area of the ship.
There have been a fair few scarecrows scattered around the country dressed up to look like Her Majesty, with one in Launton, Oxfordshire, depicted enjoying a glass of gin in her dog-walking gear wearing a sign that reads, ‘Cheers to 70 years!’.
Lucky Summer-Rose Jeffries shares her birthday with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – and couldn’t be happier with her special three-tiered Victoria Sponge cake, adorned with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad.
Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appears in the background
Some 18 royal family members will be watching on from the balcony including: The Queen; Charles and Camilla; William and Kate with George, Charlotte and Louis; Edward and Sophie and their children Louise and James; Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York will not make an appearance on the balcony.
This morning, the Queen sent a car and security detail to collect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with their two young children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, who will turn one on Saturday, after their private jet landed at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire from on Wednesday.
Her Majesty’s Land Rover greeted the family, who live in California, and their children at before taking them on a 40-minute drive to their UK home, Frogmore Cottage, just a stone’s throw away from Windsor Castle.
After today’s events, the monarch is also hoping to be able attend the service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, with her wider family.
Outdoor parties will also take place on Sunday as part of the Big Jubilee Lunch, while there will be a televised concert on the BBC from Buckingham Palace the day before.
It is also expected that she will appear again on the balcony after the Pageant parade finale on Sunday.
The Queen, 96, is also set to spend time with the Sussexes, who are bringing their children Archie and Lilibet over from the US – and could meet Lili for the first time as she celebrates her first birthday on Saturday.
On Sunday, thousands of people will gather across the country as more than 85,000 Big Jubilee Lunches and street parties are staged in celebration of the Queen’s record-breaking 70 year reign.
Royal family members will also visit every corner of the UK over the weekend for official engagements – with William and Kate going to Wales; Edward and Sophie travelling to Northern Ireland; and Anne to Scotland.
And they will be welcomed by thousands of Union Jacks as the country has pulled no punches when it comes to decorating its high streets with plenty of bunting.
The celebrations have gone further than just the UK though – with one patriotic German joining in with putting up flags of the UK’s four nations, the Royal Standard, and even miniature black-hatted redcoats which look as though they are guarding his home like they do the royal residences in Britain.
Stephen Rosner, 57, who lives near Mainz, western Germany, decorated his home with every royal ornament to hand. He told MailOnline he will be celebrating the Jubilee with some friends for tea at 5pm this bank holiday Thursday.
He said: ‘At the time of the Queen’s visit to Germany in 1978, I was 14 and happened to be watching television when the festivities were broadcast. It made a deep and lasting impression on me and it turned out that this moment would quite literally change my life.
‘Ever since then, I have been fascinated by everything connected with Great Britain, including its history, its people, its way of life, its royal family and especially Her Majesty.’
Back in the UK, Luka Grajdek baked a Victoria Sponge cake specially for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, and while taking a snap of his latest bake, a cloud in the shape of Great Britain appeared in the background.
St Mary’s Church in Launton, Bicester, is fundraising via the Jubilee by hosting a trail from 28th May to 12 June, where participants have to find 42 royally themed scarecrows and royal displays around the village.
For the official celebrations later on today, the Queen is to symbolically lead the lighting of the principal Jubilee beacon this evening as part of a chain of more than 3,500 flaming tributes to her 70-year reign.
The monarch, 96, will make an extra Jubilee appearance at Windsor Castle at 9.25pm today. It forms part of special dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge.
William will be waiting 22 miles away at the Palace, where the beacon centrepiece – a 21-metre Tree of Trees sculpture – will be illuminated in lights on the Queen’s command.
The newly-announced engagement is an additional entry to the Queen’s busy diary over the four-day weekend, which includes Trooping the Colour and a service of thanksgiving.
At Windsor, the Queen will greeted in the castle Quadrangle with a fanfare for the ceremony at the Sovereign’s Entrance.
The Commonwealth of Nations Globe – a blue globe, which sits inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion which was specially created for the Beacons project – will be placed on a podium by Yeoman Warders.
The Queen will touch the globe, symbolically triggering the lighting of the Tree of Trees beacon outside the Palace.
Lights will chase along the Quadrangle towards Windsor’s famous Round Tower, before travelling up the Tree of Trees in London.
The Queen will be joined by Bruno Peek, the Pageantmaster, who has overseen the Jubilee Beacons celebration.
Beacons will be lit throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth, and sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen’s estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, and on top of the UK’s four highest peaks.
The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize.