The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant will take place on Sunday 5 Jun, telling the story of The Queen’s 70-year reign and our transforming society. Adrian Evans of the Thames Festival Trust is in charge and many OAUK members are part of the story in Act 3: Let’s Celebrate.
Let’s Celebrate will harness creativity, ingenuity, humour and community spirit, mashing street theatre, music-on-the-move, urban dance, and the very best of Carnival, May Day, Mela, Fiesta and Mardi Gras. Featuring outdoor arts companies from across the UK who have all created their own unique pieces for the Pageant:Trigger: A single dancer, a young woman with a flowing baton in hand, will joyfully skip, dance and play with the epic 21 foot tall Hatchling dragon puppet.
Shademakers: Elaborately costumed figures representing the Four Nations and The Queen’s Beasts will take audiences back in time.
Nutkhut: A celebration of weddings from around the Commonwealth will be interpreted in inter-generational Asian/Bollywood ‘mela’ style with Hikapee.
Mahogany: Mahogany Carnival Arts will be roaring down The Mall depicting The Queen’s ascension whilst on Royal tour in Kenya, featuring an array of colourful costumes followed by a giant wire frame sculpture of The Queen.
Emergency Exit Arts & Mandinga Arts: Technical marvels from EEA, live music from Rhythms of the City and Mandinga Arts’ extraordinary carnival puppets. The centrepiece is a mighty oak and maypole, whose conjoined ribbons form an image of The Queen.
Bridgwater Carnival: A performance split into two parts- ‘Happy’ shall be a street dance parade with over 80 dancers whilst ‘Glorious’ will feature a magnificent carnival float reflecting Royal Insignia, The Commonwealth and Pomp and Splendour.
Have Faith & Jeni Cairns: Hundreds of primary school children have collaborated to build and parade paper and withy butterflies, with iconography representing the nine principle faith groups. The centerpiece features a willow and steel structure of open hands.
Global Grooves: Weaving together creative elements, musical phrasing, and dance movements that tell the story of today’s Greater Manchester, proudly sharing its story on the global stage.
Thames Festival, Kinetica Bloco & Oi Musica: 200 dancers will carry River of Hope flags, music from Kinetica Bloco based around the theme of togetherness, and dancers from Oi Musica will be in full flow along the Pageant route, while their jazz-based street band will provide audiences with tunes and percussion.
Imagineer Productions: A twenty-foot high puppet of Godiva will lead the procession, bringing with her gifts from Coventry, celebrating the ingenuity and industry of the West Midlands.
Cirque Bijou: Cirque Bijou’s large-scale mobile stage will be populated by a diverse and dynamic cast of world-class circus artists, street dancers and urban athletes.
Kinetika & Jeanefer Jean Charles: Paying homage to those on the front line during the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Queen’s commitment to public service is celebrated through silk banners, and mass choreography involving key workers and their communities.
ACT 4: HAPPY AND GLORIOUS
A finale like no other will form around the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace. It will serve as an opportunity to gather and pay tribute to Her Majesty with the singing of the National Anthem, ‘God Save the Queen’ and the London Community Gospel Choir to the sounds of the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines.
Read more: Platinum Jubilee Pageant
