‘Don’t let it go all woke’, pageant organiser warned by predecessor
THE organiser of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant was told by a predecessor not to let the ceremony “go woke”, it has emerged.
The ceremony on Sunday June 5 will pay tribute to the Queen’s 70-year-reign and will involve an estimated 10,000 helpers drawn from all corners of the Commonwealth.
Celebrities including Ed Sheeran, Sir Cliff Richard, Gary Lineker and Heston Blumenthal have also been drafted in for the festivities over the extended bank holiday weekend.
It is the eighth royal pageant in Britain’s history, the first to be marked Platinum, and has taken a about £13 million over the past five months to organise.
But Nicholas Coleridge CBE, co-chair of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant alongside Sir Michael Lockett, has revealed in The Daily Telegraph that he was told by one previous pageant organiser: “Whatever else you do, don’t let it go all woke.”
Recalling the advice he was given by former chairs and directors of past Silver and Golden events, he said one had told him: “It’s vital it’s inclusive and diverse and reflects modern Britain; disastrous if not.”
A former chair of the Silver Jubilee stressed that particular attention needed to be paid to the on-site bath- room facilities. “I have only three words to say to you: toilets, toilets, toilets. There are never enough. I told the Secretary of State that this morning.”
Lord Salisbury, who chaired the Queen’s Diamond river pageant on June 3 2012, jokingly congratulated Mr Coleridge on accepting this “poisoned chalice”. Another former organister said it was “most important to have regular meetings with the Queen’s private secretary, otherwise everything gets lost in translation and second-guessing”.
Mr Coleridge said he is devising a “particular cocktail” for the celebrations, which is “two parts pomp and ceremony, three parts history, two parts modernity and the future and one part each of National Treasures, creative celebration, razzmatazz”.
The Gold State Coach that carried the Queen to her Coronation in 1953 will make its first appearance on the streets of London since 2002 at the ceremony, Buckingham Palace revealed yesterday.
Fashioned out of giltwood and covered in gold leaf, it weighs four tonnes and is 24ft long.
The Queen previously described her journey in the coach on the occasion of her Coronation as “horrible”.
The coach has not featured at celebrations since Her Majesty rode in it at her Golden Jubilee.
King George III had been the first Royal to use it after its commission in 1760 and it has since featured at every coronation from George IV onwards.
The pageant will feature sculptures of dragons, and heraldic lions and unicorns hauled down the Mall along with a “towering wire effigy” of Her Majesty with her purple and white coronation robes formed by 80 dancers.
Outside London, giant TV screens are reportedly being hoisted on to village greens and in back gardens for viewers to enjoy the event, which is being broadcasted by the BBC.
Social media companies including Meta Facebook and Tiktok will also provide coverage in real time.
A “best of British” playlist including the Beatles and David Bowie will soundtrack the festivities alongside gospel choirs and military bands.
Making of the Jubilee: Saturday