Queen's Platinum Jubilee: Four-day festival weekend to celebrate 70-year reign

A four-day bank holiday weekend to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee will include a concert of world-class stars and a street pageant on The Mall, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The Queen, 95, will become the first British monarch to reign for 70 years on the anniversary of her accession in February, beginning a year of festivities throughout the UK and the Commonwealth.

On Thursday, June 2 – exactly a year from today – an extra bank holiday will mark the start of the main event, when four days of celebrations in and around Buckingham Palace will begin.

The Platinum Jubilee Weekend will start with Trooping the Colour, which marks the Queen's official birthday, when more than 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians will gather at the palace and move down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, joined by members of the Royal family on horseback and in carriages.

The parade will close with an RAF flypast, watched by the Queen and Royal family from the palace balcony.

On the same day, beacons will be lit throughout the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and UK overseas territories, and for the first time beacons will also be lit in each of the capital cities of the Commonwealth countries.

On Friday, June 3, a service of thanksgiving for the Queen's reign will be held at St Paul's Cathedral, then on Saturday, June 4 the Queen and members of her family will attend the Derby at Epsom, before the Platinum Party at the Palace, which will be staged and broadcast by the BBC.

Buckingham Palace said the live concert will "will bring together some of the world's biggest entertainment stars to celebrate the most significant and joyous moments from the Queen's seven-decade reign".

Members of the public will be invited to apply to attend via a ballot for UK residents.

Then on Sunday, June 5, people will be encouraged to arrange street parties to join The Big Jubilee Lunch before the final event of the weekend, the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, featuring more than 5,000 people from across the UK and the Commonwealth against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace and the surrounding streets.

The Palace said it will "combine street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival and costume and celebrate the service of Her Majesty's reign, as well as honouring the collective service of people and communities across the country".

Later this month, details of a jubilee emblem competition in conjunction with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum and the Royal College of Art, will be released, with the winning entry becoming the official emblem for the celebrations next year.

The Queen will be the first British monarch to reach the landmark, when she will have reigned for almost seven years longer than Queen Victoria, the previous record holder. Her Majesty ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, when her father George VI died aged 56.

Buckingham Palace said: "Throughout the year, Her Majesty and members of the Royal family will travel around the country to undertake a variety of engagements to mark this historic occasion culminating with the focal point of the Platinum Jubilee Weekend in June – one year from today."

The celebrations will follow a similar format to the Diamond Jubilee weekend 10 years ago, but will be slightly scaled back to take account of the fact that the Queen will be 96 by then.

In 2012, the most memorable event was the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, which featured the biggest flotilla seen on the Thames in 350 years. On that day, the Queen and the late Prince Philip sailed down the river on a royal barge built for the occasion, but heavy rain took the shine off the day and the Duke of Edinburgh fell ill with an infection.

Next year's events will be confined to dry land and, with the exception of the Queen’s attendance at the Derby, will all take place at, or within two miles of, Buckingham Palace.

Then, as now, the country was granted an extra bank holiday and the four-day weekend included a service at St Paul's, street parties and an RAF flypast.

The concert held at the Palace included acts representing each decade of the Queen's reign. Organised by Take That singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, the highlights included performances by Sir Cliff Richard, Ed Sheeran, Sir Tom Jones, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney.

The Queen did not attend the entire concert, and Prince Philip's bladder infection meant he could not attend at all.