North Tyneside will host a spectacular beacon lighting ceremony to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
The event will take place on Thursday 2 June, from 6.30pm to 10pm, at Segedunum Roman Fort and Museum, Wallsend, to signal the start of the extended Bank Holiday weekend.
It will include a free programme of family entertainment in partnership with SALTo Arts Productions, as well as food vendors and market stalls, pipers and buglers, a firework display and a giant screen beaming out images from other ceremonies across Britain and the Commonwealth, and from seven decades of The Queen's reign.
The grounds will be decked in red, white, and blue for the occasion, and musicians and entertainers will walk and perform among the audience.
The 101st Regiment Royal Artillery will fire a 105mm gun at 9.30pm to announce the start of formal proceedings. Seven beacons including a huge steel brazier standing four meters high, manufactured by local company Smulders, will be lit at 10pm.
Beacons will be lit along the 73 mile length of Hadrian’s Wall to mark the occasion, in what is the 1900th year of Hadrian’s Wall, to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year on the throne. Over 1500 beacons will be lit across the UK, Commonwealth and beyond for the final time in Her Majesty’s reign.
Segedunum will be closed to the public during the day to allow preparations for the evening event.
North Tyneside's Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE, said: "This is an historic moment, and we are proud to play our part in the first special event celebrating Her Majesty, The Queen’s 70th year as our Monarch.
"The lighting of a beacon for ceremonial purposes is a long-held Royal tradition and I can't think of a better location than Segedunum to stage the event in our borough.
"The unique surroundings, together with the traditional pipe and bugle playing, will make for a special atmosphere. The event is free to attend and there will be lots for families to enjoy as we build towards the main event. I wish everyone a very enjoyable extended Bank Holiday, whether attending the beacon event or one of more than one hundred privately organised street parties in the borough."
North Tyneside Council has teamed up with SALTo Arts to plan an exciting programme for the event, with live music on and off stage and street theatre including Fairly Famous Family’s Jubilee Kitch Kafe, Reckless Inventions ‘waiters’ Altered States ‘Invisible Man’ 16RPM’s show ‘the Carpeters’ along with some vintage TV ads from across the decades put together for us by Whitley Bay Film Festival.
There will be a traditional Spanish Style 'Gigante' Queen Elizabeth on site, made by artist and Salto co-Director Richard Broderick. The head and shoulders of the gigante are made of Carton, a sort of papier mache cardboard which is shaped inside a mould made from an initial clay sculpture, using an ancient technique and a material that is no longer available, meaning this may be one of the last traditional gigantes made.
Also on site will be a group of nine 'banners of hope' created by street groups in Whitley Bay during the period when indoor workshops were not possible. Artists Sally Southern and Cath Hodson worked with street groups in their gardens to design and print tall banners depicting their hopes for the future of the town.
Programme of entertainment:
2pm Proclamation: North Tyneside's Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn and civic dignitaries will announce a specially written proclamation heralding the lighting of the beacons later that day.
6pm Gates open
6.15pm Drummers perform, and film begins
6.30 - 7pm Northern Monkey Brass Band perform live
7.10pm – Welcome – Norma Redfearn – Elected Mayor – North Tyneside Council
7.15pm - 8.15pm The Pre Amps live: a 4-piece band play 60s influenced pop-rock
8.15pm - 8.30pm Drummers perform among the audience
8.30pm - 9.30pm Bradley Creswick’s Western Swingfonia
9.30pm 105mm gun will be fired to signal the start of the formal proceedings
9.35pm Traditional highland piper Stevie Christie, will play Diu Regnare, a unique tune specially written for the occasion by Piper Major, Stuart Liddell, the world’s leading piper.
9.40pm Buglers Nikita Gilbert, Peter Davison and Tom Giblin will officially announce the lighting of the beacons with a specially written bugle call, entitled Majesty.
9.45pm Community choirs across all nations will sing the song called A Life Lived with Grace, which has been written and composed by Lucy Keily, from Australia, and Vincent Atueyi Chinemelu, from Nigeria. Beacons lit across the rest of the UK.
10pm Beacons will be lit across the communities of Hadrian’s Wall
Information on how to get to Segedunum by car, by public transport, or on foot can be found here.
Organised by Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR, Pageantmaster, the event will see thousands of town criers, Pearly Kings and Queens, pipers, buglers, and choirs performing, ahead of the lighting of more than 2,022 beacons throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK Overseas Territories and within the Commonwealth countries at 9.45pm on Thursday June 2, 2022. Beacons across Hadrian’s Wall will be lit at the later time of 10.00pm.
Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR, Pageantmaster of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons, said:
“Building on a long tradition of lighting beacons to mark significant royal celebrations, more than 2,022 Jubilee Beacons will be lit across the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK Overseas Territories and within the Commonwealth countries on the first evening of the four-day Jubilee Weekend (on Thursday June 2, 2022). The Beacons will enable local communities to join and pay tribute to Her Majesty as part of the official programme of events.
For the first time, town criers, pipers, buglers and choirs from the UK and the Commonwealth will come together to join in the celebrations in their own individual and special way. It is wonderful to see the range of support for beacon lighting, which will highlight both the diversity and the unity of the nation and the Commonwealth. The Queen has lit up our lives for 70 years through her dedicated service and commitment. We would like to light up the nation and the Commonwealth in her honour.”
Jane, Lady Gibson, Chair, Hadrian’s Wall WHS Partnership Board, said:
“Communities along the length of Hadrian’s Wall are taking part in this unique celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee made even more significant to us as it falls in the same year as our Hadrian 1900 festival, commemorating Hadrian arriving in northern Britain to supervise the building of his Wall in AD122”.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons and Associated Activities has been conceived and organised by Pageantmaster Bruno Peek, and his dedicated team.
