Details of the Golden Jubilee weekend

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

Further details of The Queen's Golden Jubilee Weekend have been announced today, with celebrations ranging from street parties to a unique pageant along The Mall.

The Jubilee Weekend, taking place 1-4 June, will comprise a four-day festival of events culminating in a procession in central London commemorating the past fifty years of the Queen's reign, and the cultural diversity achieved both within the UK and across the Commonwealth.

Saturday, 1 June

The Golden Jubilee celebrations will start on the evening of Saturday 1 June with a classical concert including major international stars in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, watched by an audience of 12,000 drawn by public ballot.

It will also be seen by many thousands on large video screens specially erected in London and other towns and cities across the United Kingdom to enable as many people as possible to share in the celebrations.

Sunday, 2 June

This day will be more of a day of reflection focussed on Jubilee church services and bell-ringing across the nation and in the Commonwealth, where The Queen is also Head of State of 15 other countries apart from the United Kingdom.

Monday, 3 June

Monday will see celebration parties and bonfires. Communities will be united in festivity through the staging of garden and street parties as well as other celebrations, including the lighting of beacons and bonfires.

The Queen's Golden Jubilee Weekend Trust, a charity, is working with the organisation Golden Jubilee Summer Party which, in partnership with local authorities, church groups, public bodies, broadcasters, youth organisations, business, charitable and other organisations from all parts of the community, will promote participation in the Golden Jubilee and a sense of pride and unity.

At lunchtime on Monday, 3 June, and to coincide with a BBC programme of Music Live, it is hoped that church bells, gongs, and other forms of music making will be sounded to signal the start of the Festival celebrations.

These will range from simple gatherings of friends to mass events in public parks and on village greens.

In a replica of events at the last Golden Jubilee, that of Queen Victoria in 1887, a chain of beacons and bonfires will be lit across the UK from Lands End to John O'Groats and from Great Yarmouth to Holyhead, at the Arctic Circle and in Antartica as well as in the Commonwealth, as a climax to the day's festivities. The beacons will form a chain across the UK.

The major informal festivities on Monday, 3 June start with a rock and pop concert in the gardens of Buckingham Palace in the evening, again watched by an audience of 12,000 drawn from the public and broadcast through screens nationwide as well as on television.

Afterwards, The Queen will light a special beacon on the Mall outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. This will be followed by a spectacular "Son et Lumiere Fireworks" programme in the vicinity of Buckingham Palace.

Tuesday, 4 June

Tuesday, 4 June will start with a State Procession from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a Thanksgiving Service.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will use the Coronation Gold Coach to proceed to St Paul's.

After the service at St Paul's and a lunch at The Guildhall hosted by the City, The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will return to Horse Guards where they will watch a National Festival of processions down the Mall.

The Mall Pageant will include:

* a carnival theme

* youth bands and performers

* Commonwealth procession

* commemoration of the Queen's fifty years with key personalities, achievers and stars of the reign

* a flypast by the RAF and Concorde as The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace