Colossal ‘Queen’s Beasts’ the height of three storey houses, dragons the dimension of London buses, and more than 5,000 military personnel, performers, key workers, and volunteers from across the UK and all corners of the Commonwealth are planned to celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign next year in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.
To be held in London on Sunday June 5, 2022, the Pageant is shaping up to be one of the largest celebratory events for decades and will tell the story of Elizabeth II’s record reign (since 1952) and the transformation of society during her decades on the throne.
Michael Morpurgo, author of “War Horse,” has written a faerie story titled “There Once is a Queen,” which Pageant Master Adrian Evans is bringing to life, harnessing the talents of artists and creatives from every part of the nation and beyond.
“We commission artists and the communities they work with to interpret different chapters of this narrative in their own unique way, placing those communities and the work they create centre stage, in a spectacular unfolding story filled with wonder, warmth, wit and wow-factor,” state organizers of the privately funded event, which is financed by a collection of corporate partners, commercial businesses, royal warrant holders, and individual donors, who wish to honour the monarch.
Separated into three acts, the event will begin with contingents of marching bands, serving troops, and people across the UK and the Commonwealth, marching along The Mall and through some of London’s most iconic streets “with all the military precision and ceremony for which (Britain is) rightly famous.
ACT II will be a “a sensory explosion of exciting and extraordinary theatre, dance, music, carnival and street arts creativity” that combines the best of Carnival, May Day, Mela, Fiesta and Mardi Gras.
Details of Act III finale will be revealed next year.
“Through the fusion of ceremonial and pageantry with razzmatazz and festival, we intend to create a spectacle that is at once energizing and memorable and a fitting tribute to The Queen,” says pageant co-chair Nicholas Coleridge.
Adds co-chair Michael Lockett: “The Pageant will take us on a journey through to the digital decade of the ‘90s and onwards to today where we stand on the cusp of new adventures and fresh progress.”