2012Diamond Jubilee - Set

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II is the planned international celebration in 2012 marking the 60th 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. Queen Victoria in 1897 is thus far the only other monarch in the histories of Britain, Canada, and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee. In the United Kingdom, national and regional events have been planned to mark the Diamond Jubilee. An extra bank holiday would take place on Tuesday, 5 June 2012 meaning this will result in a four-day holiday in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, coinciding with the Queen’s Official Birthday in the United Kingdom, also on 4 June. A large event will be staged in London on that weekend, which is to include a diamond jubilee concert, reportedly to be produced by singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, and a maritime parade of boats and events along the River Thames on 3 June, in which 1,000 boats are expected to take part (the largest flotilla to be seen on the river in 350 years) and some one million people are expected to watch from the banks. The Queen and other members of the Royal family will be carried down the Thames on a special Royal barge. Street parties can be permitted to take place across the country. There was a contest held by the BBC children’s programme Blue Peter to design the official emblem for the Diamond Jubilee; the winning design, announced in February 2011, was created by ten-year-old Katherine Dewar.