THE countdown has begun to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
More than 50million people say they will be taking part in events organised to mark 70 years since the Queen came to the throne.
Yesterday Buckingham Palace officials revealed more details of the Jubilee jamboree – and you will want to make a royal appointment.
Mike Ridley shares the details of what you can look forward to during the momentous four-day bank holiday festivities next month.
Thursday June 2
THE historic four-day Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday begins at 10am sharp with the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in London.
For the last two years the military parade that marks the Queen’s official birthday has been a slimmed-down affair at Windsor Castle.
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But to mark the Queen’s remarkable 70-year reign, the parade is back in London with more than 1,500 troops taking part.
The colour will be trooped by the 1st Battalion Irish Guards.
They will be accompanied from Buckingham Palace down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall by officers and soldiers from the Household Division, plus military bands and 240 horses.
They will escort the Royal Family, including Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne, who will be on horseback.
Visitors in the packed Mall will be able to see Camilla and Kate in carriages that will take them to the Trooping the Colour ceremony
A royal gun salute to mark the Jubilee will be fired around the country – and later, you will be able to see the royals on their way back to Buckingham Palace.
The Queen is expected to be on the balcony after the parade.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, will appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace for the traditional RAF flypast.
The Red Arrows will be among the dozens of planes flying up the Mall and over Buckingham Palace in salute to Her Majesty.
At 8pm, as dusk falls, the Royal Family will light a beacon at Buckingham Palace using lasers.
Traditional fires will then be lit in 2,000 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, and British overseas territories.
Veterans from Help for Heroes will light beacons at the furthest points north, south east and west in Great Britain.
Friday June 3
AT 10.50am, Great Paul will toll at St Paul’s Cathedral in London to mark a service of Thanksgiving for the Queen’s reign.
The 16-ton church bell, which is the largest in Britain, has only sounded on eight occasions since it was restored last year – and this is the first time it will be rung for a royal event.
Five minutes later, bells will peal in churches the length and breadth of Britain.
The 11.30 service will be attended by around 2,000 invited guests, who will hear a new anthem for the Jubilee played for the first time.
It has not been announced whether Boris Johnson will give a reading at this service like previous PM David Cameron did during 2012’s Diamond Jubilee.
Saturday June 4
COURTIERS are said to be “moving heaven and earth” for the Queen, accompanied by members of the Royal Family, to attend the Derby at 5.30pm at Epsom racecourse.
It is Britain’s richest flat race – and the only Classic the Queen has never won.
Reach For The Moon, her horse with the best chance of winning, has already been pulled from the 243rd edition of the event.
Around 40 retired and current jockeys, dressed in the Queen’s silks, will form a guard of honour.
One of them will be 79-year-old Willie Carson who rode Dunfermline, the Queen’s Oaks winner in Silver Jubilee year, 1977.
Proms In The Park will be held in London and there will be a Jubilee Picnic on the Long Walk at Windsor.
The BBC’s Platinum Party at the Palace begins at 8pm, attended by up to 22,000 members of the public, which includes 10,000 who won tickets in a ballot and 5,000 key workers.
Some of the world’s biggest stars will appear in the three-hour live concert to celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign.
Singer George Ezra and Radio 1’s Clara Amfo will be among a host of famous names appearing on a trio of high-tech concert stages that will be built outside the palace.
The three-hour party will be hosted on BBC1 by Newsnight’s Kirsty Young and Capital Radio breakfast show host Roman Kemp.
Beeb bosses will announce the full line-up later.
Sunday June 5
FROM midday, more than 60,000 people will host Big Jubilee Lunches.
Members of the Royal Family are expected to attend some of the thousands of community get-togethers taking place around the UK at lunchtime.
Events big and small are planned, including world-record attempts during the longest street party ever at the Goring Gap festival in Oxfordshire.
At the Oval in Kennington, South London, guests who have been honoured for their charity work will attend a lunch at the cricket ground.
Many people taking part in Jubilee lunches will be tucking into the dessert that will have won the nationwide Platinum Pudding competition.
The BBC will reveal the winning recipe on Thursday.
In the evening, Ed Sheeran will be among 10,000 performers, dancers, musicians, military personnel, key workers and volunteers telling the story of the Queen’s reign in a pageant.
The incredible parade in central London is to begin in Parliament Square, travel along Whitehall and up the Mall.
It finishes at the Palace where Ed, 31, will lead tributes to Her Majesty – 11 years after playing in his socks at a street party in Battersea, South London, to mark Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.
Bells at Westminster Abbey will ring out to mark the pageant, just as they did for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.
The Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry will accompany the Queen’s Gold State coach.
Its windows will show images from her coronation – which she travelled to in the same carriage.
The coach has not been seen on London’s streets for 20 years.
The £15million pageant, which includes 6,000 volunteers, will be seen by a billion TV viewers globally.
Highlights include an aerial artist suspended under a helium balloon bearing the image of the Queen, and a giant 3D bust of Her Majesty.
Other key moments will be a giant oak tree flanked with maypole dancers, a huge moving wedding cake sounding out Bollywood hits, and a towering dragon.
A 20ft puppet of a youthful princess, barefoot and carefree, will be surrounded by a pack of mischievous puppet corgis.
FANCY the pub afterwards? They’ll be open for an extra two hours – until 1am from Thursday to Saturday – for the Bank
Holiday.
A SPECIAL Platinum Jubilee T-shirt goes on sale next week.
It has been designed by artist Charlie Macksey, author of the best-selling illustrated book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse.
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The shirt show the boy and the mole with a heart-shaped Union Jack and the words: “Thank you, Ma’am”.
The shirt will be on sale from the Royal Collection Trust website and its shops in London, Windsor and Edinburgh.
