page_title: Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II
section_title: Golden Jubilee Weekend
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II / Celebrations in the Commonwealth realms / United Kingdom / Golden Jubilee Weekend
caption_attribution_description: Español: Concorde fue el primer avión supersónico en llevar pasajeros. English: Concorde parade flight with the Red Arrows at the Queen's Golden Jubilee Deutsch: Paradeflugshow einer Concorde mit den Red Arrows anlässlich des Queen's Golden Jubilee Eesti: Concorde ülehelikiirusega reisilennuk Queen's Golden Jubilee pidus Français&#160;: Supersonique Concorde paradant avec les Red Arrows pour le Jubilé d'Or de la Reine Elisabeth II. Русский: Полёт самолёта Конкорд на параде Queen's Golden Jubilee
context_page_description: The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration held in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries, upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952, and was intended by the Queen to be both a commemoration of her 50 years as monarch and an opportunity for her to officially and personally thank her people for their loyalty. Despite the deaths of her sister, Princess Margaret, and mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, in February and March 2002 respectively, and predictions in the media that the anniversary would be a non-event, the jubilee was marked with large-scale and popular events throughout London in June of the same year, bookended by events throughout the Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth attended all of the official celebrations as scheduled, along with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh; over twelve months, the royal couple journeyed more than 40,000 miles to the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, then around the United Kingdom, and wrapped up the jubilee year in Canada.
context_section_description: The Golden Jubilee Weekend took place between 1 and 4 June 2002 in London, for which the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh left Scotland on 29 May to make final preparations. On the first evening, the Saturday, the Prom at the Palace took place in the gardens of Buckingham Palace and highlighted classical music; out of the two million who applied for tickets, 12,500 people were selected to attend, making the event the largest ever held on the royal property. The crowds were entertained by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and guest vocalists included Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Allen, Angela Gheorghiu, and Roberto Alagna.
  The following day, the Queen and her husband attended a church service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, while their family were present at thanksgiving services elsewhere in the United Kingdom; The Prince of Wales and his sons, Princes William and Harry, in Swansea; The Earl and Countess of Wessex in Salisbury; and The Princess Royal in Ayr.
  After time on 3 June touring Eton and Slough, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh returned to London and the former at 1:00 pm launched the nationwide BBC Music Live Festival, in which more than 200 towns and cities across the United Kingdom publicly played the Beatles song "All You Need Is Love". During the day, street parties were held around the country, and that evening, the Queen, the Duke, and other members of the immediate Royal Family, made themselves present at another concert on the grounds of Buckingham Palace; this fête, called Party at the Palace, showcased achievements in pop music over the previous 50 years, with headlining acts including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, and Tony Bennett. Queen guitarist Brian May commenced the event by playing his arrangement of "God Save the Queen" from the roof of the palace, and Paul McCartney concluded the night with such numbers as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Hey Jude", which were each performed before and after the Queen lit the National Beacon at the Victoria Memorial, the last in a string of 2,006 beacons to be lit in a chain throughout the world, echoing Queen Victoria's own Golden Jubilee in 1887. 12,000 guests were allowed into the concert, while an additional one million people thronged The Mall to watch and listen to the festivities on giant television screens and join in with the palace audience's singing from outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, and a further 200 million watched the televised event around the world.
  On 4 June, the entire royal family attended the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, to which the Queen rode in the Gold State Coach, followed by lunch at the Guildhall. There the Queen addressed the crowd and expressed pride at the Commonwealth's achievements, both during her reign as queen and throughout time; Elizabeth was quoted as saying: "Gratitude, respect and pride, these words sum up how I feel about the people of this country and the Commonwealth—and what this Golden Jubilee means to me." The jubilee procession then started along The Mall in the early afternoon; in addition to entertainers performing for the Queen, numerous floats were decorated to illustrate British life through the years of Elizabeth's reign and driven through The Mall. The parade concluded with 5,000 adults and children from the 54 member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations marching in their various national costumes before the Queen and presenting to her a "rainbow of wishes", consisting of handwritten notes from school children across the Commonwealth. In front of more than one million people, the Royal Family assembled on the balcony of the Centre Room of Buckingham Palace and watched a flypast consisting of every type of Royal Air Force aircraft in service (27 in all), Concorde, and the Red Arrows.  There was only one publicly noted negative event in relation to the jubilee when approximately 40 activists, mostly drawn from the anarchist Movement Against the Monarchy, were arrested during a protest in the run-
caption: Concorde and the Red Arrows ended the flypast over Buckingham Palace on 4 June
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