The first day of the platinum jubilee weekend is here, and it will be kicking off with a major event this morning — the Trooping the Colour.
The Queen’s birthday parade sees members of the royal family joined by soldiers, musicians and horses, who all make their way down the mall towards Buckingham Palace.
This year, Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Anne will take the salute instead of the Queen, who has been facing mobility issues, and they will ride on the parade as colonels of the Welsh Guards, the Irish Guards and the Blues and Royals.
The parade will begin at 10am, and end with a RAF flypast at 1pm, which royal family members will watch from the Buckingham Palace balcony.
In May, Buckingham Palace announced that only working members of the royal family would be present on the balcony, which means that Prince Andrew, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would not be on the balcony.
However, we can expect to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the balcony, along with their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are now in the UK for the weekend’s celebrations, are expected to watch the Trooping the Colour parade from the Major General’s Office.
The second and final event for today will be the lighting of the platinum jubilee beacons.
Buckingham Palace announced late on Wednesday that the Queen would be lighting the principal jubilee beacon in a special ceremony at Windsor castle.
Prince William is set to light the beacon at Buckingham Palace. These beacons are expected to be lit at 9.25pm this evening.
Approximately 2,022 beacons are set to be lit across the UK and Commonwealth nations to celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign.
Both of the events happening on Thursday 2 June will be broadcast live by the BBC.
