7 Ways To Celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

In the UK, excitement is building to fever pitch about the Platinum Jubilee to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne.

While she wasn’t crowned until 2 June 1953, she became queen by default when her ailing father, King George VI passed away on 6 February 1952.

The Jubilee celebrations officially run from 2-5 June but in the UK, Jubilee-themed events run until September to celebrate the the northern summer. However you could, in fact, use them as an event theme right up to 6 February 2023.

1. Kenyan Safari
If you’ve seen The Crown, you’ll know that her husband, Prince Philip had to break the news of her father’s death to her while they were on official tour in Kenya.

Overnight she went into mourning, and into training as a future queen.

Consider planning an African safari theme, with lots of wild animal prints, pith helmets, director chairs, rattan or bamboo furniture etc.

Hire a glamping tent or two for the bar areas. Serve gin and tonics and more exotic fare such as crocodile, ostrich and buffalo. Give cuddly lions as guest favours. This is the ideal time to book an event at the local zoo or safari park.

2. Wartime Heroes
Queen Elizabeth II is famous for having trained for six weeks as a military truck driver as a mechanic during World War II. 

She learned how to deconstruct, repair and rebuild engines and change tires, and learned how to drive every type of machine she worked on, including jeeps, trucks and ambulances.

She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1944 and there are a few tales of her dab hand with a wrench, fixing those pesky, bogged Land Rovers on her estates.

A military theme would be perfect here. Recreate Churchill’s War Rooms with lots of antique maps, and Bakelite telephones. Heavy glass ashtrays for the endless, fevered smoking. Book something at your local barracks or a venue with a military theme.

3. Royals on Tour
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, along with their royal offspring, have probably visited almost all of the countries on the planet.

So you could stage a Jubilee event to do with royal tours. Perhaps models of the Britannia or the Royal Train could be used. Order a gleaming silver porthole mirror to suggest the royal yacht. Create boarding passes as the invitations. Serve a range of dishes to represent different nationalities.

Perhaps your guests could come dressed in costumes representing the Commonwealth. You might want 3D tropical backgrounds to represent the Caribbean nations for photo opportunities. This might be one occasion you hire a river, lake or harbour cruise venue.

4. Best in Show
The Queen’s love of horses and corgis is legendary. You don’t have to book Flemington Racecourse to host a horse-themed Jubilee party.

Hire a semi-circular arch. Lots of boxwood hedges. Flamboyant florals. Stylish outdoor seating. Astroturf and picket fences. Market umbrellas. Chat to the Guide Dogs about bringing their pups to your party for a cuddle in return for a charity donation.

5. Garden Party
Until 2022, the Queen attended the Garden Party, held every year in the park surrounding Buckingham Palace. A hotly contested ticket, the garden party makes it easy to hold an event during daytime, serving champagne, strawberries and cream, and dainty sandwiches.

Create a spring-like effect with an aisle lined with faux pink cherry blossom trees leading to an exclusive cordoned-off area covered in lush green astroturf and bordered with white picket fences.  Serve drinks to guests from an usherette tray.

6. Platinum 70s Style
Expect a revival of 70s parties, which were superceded in the 1990s by 80s theme parties, which in turn were followed by 90s costume parties in the Naughties.

Celebrating her 70^th year – surpassing Queen Victoria who managed “only” 63 years on the throne – Queen Elizabeth is now the world’s third longest serving monarch.

This theme of course calls for coloured flashing light disco floors, smoke machines and glittering mirror balls if you want the Studio 54 slinky 70s version. Hire a 3D disco patterned wall or a gold sequin background for photo opportunities. It’ll be even easier if you hire an actual nightclub – by day or night – for your event.

Did you know Melbourne has more venues with dance floors than any other Australian capital city?

7. God Save The Queen
Danny Boyle’s new documentary about the 70s punk band, The Sex Pistols has been timed well.

The Sex Pistols formed in 1975 but thanks to manager Malcolm McLaren’s genius for promotion, they burst onto the public consciousness singing on a barge on the Thames River during the Queen’s 25^th Silver Jubilee in 1977.

A punk Jubilee theme would be completely novel and unexpected.

Mohawks, safety pins, ripped trousers, coloured hair. Get guests to sit on milk crates. Serve them lurid cocktails in acid green and orange. A perfect venue would be an industrial warehouse.

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