June 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2002

Buckingham Palace, London, England

Long Live The Queen
Four day celebration marks 50 years of glorious reign

London celebrated The Queen's Golden Jubilee commemorating 50 years of a glorious reign with parades, parties, concerts, and a thanksgiving service at St. Paul's Cathedral. The Celebration attracted more than a million people to Buckingham Palace, Green Park, St. James's Park, through The Mall to Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square. This event has proved the strong relationship between the people and Sovereign through the past 50 years of British history.

The celebrations and festivities displayed the unreserved British pride with more than a million spectators waving the Union Jack, singing "Land of Hope and Glory", and uniting with other British of all colors. Multiculturalism and diversity were themes expressed by the events with a parade of 36 organization's representing Britain's ethnic minorities and ambassadors from its 54 commonwealth nations. Accompanying the parade was a gospel choir of 5,000 singers belting out uplifting soul. The finale was a crowd pleaser with a red, white, and blue low-level fly-by with 27 Air Force aircraft.

On Monday night, a huge pop-rock concert took place in Buckingham Gardens with Britain's best of the best performers. Performers such as Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Jones, S Club 7, the Beach Boy's Brian Wilson, Dame Shirley Bassy, Rod Stewart, Annie Lennox, Ricky Martin, Phil Collins, Ted Wilson, Eric Clapton, Queen, and more dedicated a special show for a crowd of 20 million people worldwide. That night my flatmates Amira, Florence, Flore, Christian, Monica, Elizabeth, and I crowded St. James's Park and The Mall with its estimated million to witness the concert on the big screens. People drinking, screaming, and singing 'Hey Jude' was quite the experience. The energy locked within the celebrations was explosive with a magnificent display of fireworks finishing the night on a great note.

Tuesday morning, the last day of the Jubilee celebrations, my friend Nigel, Thor, Darren, and Phil journeyed to a spot before St. Paul's Cathedral, the last portion of the Queen's morning parade from Buckingham Palace. While attempting to look over a crowd off taller people, I left the group for a second with some ideas in mind how to get myself a decent view. I told the group I would be back in a bit, and returned shortly with bakers crates and some wooden boards to build us a platform so we could comfortably see the parade. During that parade I saw Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Anne, the rest of the Royal Family, and finally Her Majesty in the golden baroque coronation coach en route to the Thanksgiving precession at St. Paul's. Escorting the Queen was an amazing entourage of beautiful horses and traditional British guardsman.

The Queen's Golden Jubilee and its festivities was a wonderful closing to another chapter of my experience abroad in England. I really enjoyed my time here in the United Kingdom and will treasure these times, especially this weekend.

Special Thanks to Nigel for providing these wonderful pictures.