Party time as the Queen turns 90

BIGGER, BETTER and with even more horses than before: a vast extravaganza with 600 of them and 1500 performers – including New Zealanders – will be held at Windsor to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday next year.

The show, which will be tailormade to appeal to the Queen, will feature cavalry troopers, dancers, Shetland ponies, racehorses, musicians, choirs and a line-up of actors and actresses yet to be announced.

However, the show will not be broadcast on the BBC. The omission of the national broadcaster for an event of national significance will be seen by many as a snub to the corporation after heavy criticism of its coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. Viewers described its live broadcast of the flotilla on the River Thames as ‘‘inane’’ and ‘‘tedious’’, and the BBC received almost 500 complaints. ITV has the gig instead.

The celebrations will run over four nights from May 12, even though the Queen will actually have turned 90 nearly a month earlier, on April 21.

She will attend on the last night, May 15, with other members of the royal family.

The event, already 18 months in the planning, will coincide with the Royal Windsor Horse Show. It will focus on three of the Queen’s interests: the military, the Commonwealth and horses.

The show will reflect the Queen’s life, from her childhood to World War II and her many state visits.

The participants will include the Omani cavalry with more than 100 horses, and performers from Chile, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Azerbaijan and Fiji.

There will also be state carriages from the Royal Mews.

The event is sponsored by companies including Jaguar Land Rover, BT and Waitrose, and in the words of organiser Simon BrooksWard, is ‘‘well-funded’’. Any surplus will go to charities supported by the Queen.