Britain will celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday this summer with Pimm’s and PG Tips at the biggest street party the country has ever seen.
The Patron’s Lunch is the highlight of a weekend of events paying tribute to the monarch’s life and achievements.
She is said to be ‘really excited’ about the party designed to celebrate her role as patron of more than 600 national and Commonwealth organisations.
The Queen will attend as guest of honour along with Prince Philip and grandsons William and Harry, who are joint presidents of the event, as well as other royals.
Britain's biggest ever street party! 10,000 to join Queen for her 90th birthday charity lunch in The Mall
10,000 people will be treated to Pimm's and PG Tips at the Patron's Lunch, celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday
She is said to be 'really excited' about the party, to honour her vital role as patron of more than 600 organisations
As well as the Queen, Prince Philip and her grandsons William and Harry will be present, as well as other royals
But critics have expressed concern that charity workers are being charged £150 per person to join the celebration
By Rebecca English Royal Correspondent and Josh White For The Daily Mail
15 January 2016
Daily Mail
Britain will celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday this summer with Pimm’s and PG Tips at the biggest street party the country has ever seen.
The Patron’s Lunch is the highlight of a weekend of events paying tribute to the monarch’s life and achievements.
She is said to be ‘really excited’ about the party designed to celebrate her role as patron of more than 600 national and Commonwealth organisations.
The Queen will attend as guest of honour along with Prince Philip and grandsons William and Harry, who are joint presidents of the event, as well as other royals.
But there was concern last night after it emerged that charities which have the monarch as their patron are being charged £150 per person to join the official celebration on The Mall. Although the vast majority of the 10,000 places are being ‘made available’ to organisations with close links to the Queen, they will be charged for the privilege.
Guest of honour: The Patron's Lunch will be the highlight of a weekend of scheduled events paying tribute to the Queen's achievements The Patrons Lunch
Royal party: Some 10,000 people are estimated to be in attendance, including Prince Philip and the Queen's grandsons William and Harry. Pictured, revellers turn out for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee street party
Around 1,000 tickets will also be sold through a public ballot in early March. Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips, who is organising the event, insisted yesterday that the charge was necessary. He said that the street party is ‘not a cheap exercise’ and there is a shortfall between what is being provided by sponsors and the cost of staging the vast event. He also stressed that it is a not-for-profit event and any extra money raised would be distributed back to charity.
But questions were being asked about why organisations supported by the monarch should be asked to meet the cost of attending an official royal celebration of their role out of their own funds. There are also fears the event could turn into a corporate jamboree after it was revealed that those taking part are also being allowed to auction off 40 per cent of their ticket allocation in order to cover the cost of their own staff attending.
That means a significant proportion of attendees may have simply ‘bought’ their way in and not have any affiliation with the charities the event is designed to promote.
One charity worker who asked not to be named described the charging policy as a ‘sting in the tail’, but added: ‘It’s [still] an incredible honour.’ Another said: ‘Many of the charities weren’t deeply excited [about the plans for a lunch]. I feel we are still waiting for the big sell.
I think it’s not clear there will be any opportunities to promote our work and that is a disappointment. I think it’s not very clear what we are doing apart from sitting at tables on The Mall.’
Celebration: The Queen is said to be 'really excited' about the events, which will include a carnival parade and an enormous street party
How The Mall will look on 12 June
Help Musicians UK said it had paid for its ten tickets from a ‘budget set aside for that type of event’. And Lea Bennett, secretary of Island Sailing Club, said 14 members had tickets. ‘The club is not footing the bill. Individual members are paying,’ she said.
David Anderson, the chief officer of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, revealed that members would also pay personally for the 20 tickets they had been allocated. ‘I think at the end of the day it’s what you want to spend your money on isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary. If I wanted to go to a show in London I would be spending that sort of money.’
Ed Aspel, executive director of fundraising and marketing at Cancer Research UK, added: ‘We hope to invite fundraisers and volunteers who have worked tirelessly for Cancer Research UK, as a way of thanking them for their time and dedication. We hope this will be a memorable occasion for them and a fantastic day for all involved.’
A spokesman for the Patron’s Lunch explained: ‘Organising an event of this magnitude in this location requires significant investment.
The Patron’s Lunch is a not-for-profit event, and whilst we have the generous support from our partners, it does not cover the full cost.
‘This is a truly unique event – it is a once-in-a-lifetime, never-done-before celebration. This ticket is a very special one that gives people the chance to be part of this huge street party to honour the lifetime of service of the Queen.’
The Queen turns 90 on April 21 but the weekend of official celebrations will not be held until the summer. On Friday June 10 there will be a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, followed by the annual Queen’s Birthday Parade on Horse Guards on the Saturday. The Patron’s Lunch will take place on Sunday June 12.
The Mall will be transformed, with a thousand tables, each seating ten people, and ten thousand chairs needing to be laid out.
Guests are being treated to a wicker hamper lunch provided by Marks & Spencer and refreshments including Pimm’s, PG Tips tea and Wall’s Ice Cream.
They will be allowed to arrive from 10am, with the Queen and Prince Philip making an entrance in their open-topped State Review Vehicle, a new hybrid-powered Range Rover, at lunch-time.
There will be live ‘carnival style’ entertainment with a colourful procession of entertainers representing the Queen’s patronages travelling the length of The Mall and around the Royal Parks.
Concern: Questions are being asked about why organisations supported by the monarch should be asked to meet the cost of attending an official royal celebration of their role out of their own funds. Pictured, children at Tweedbank to meet the Queen in September 2015 (top) and (bottom) the Queen aboard the Spirit of Chartwell during the Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant in June 2012 in London
Unique event: However, there has been concern that charity workers for the Queen's organisations will be charged £150 each for a ticket. PIctured, the Queen meets German children while on a state visit in Berlin in June 2015
Atmosphere: The Mall will be transformed, with a thousand tables, each seating ten people, and ten thousand chairs needing to be laid out
This will allow members of the public not lucky enough to secure tickets to join in. The BBC will broadcast the event and giant screens will transmit the spectacle, as well as events celebrating the Queen’s birthday around the Commonwealth.
The Queen will view events from a specially built Royal Box at the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Mr Phillips said that he hoped the event would also inspire communities across the country to hold their own street parties. Yesterday the Government issued revised street party guidance to make it easier to hold local events. Buckingham Palace said: ‘Her Majesty is looking forward to attending and seeing representatives of her many patronages which do outstanding work across a range of fields.’
A source added: ‘Planning and ticketing details are a matter for the event organisers.’
So who will run the Queen's huge street party? Her Majesty's own grandson: Peter Philips's firm to organise event after putting in 'bid' to Buckingham Palace
Family connection: The Queen's birthday street party is being organised by an Australian firm, whose London director is her grandson, Peter Phillips (pictured)
The Queen’s birthday street party is being organised by Australian firm Sports and Entertainment Limited, whose London director is none other than her grandson, Peter Phillips.
It also emerged yesterday that although it is a not-for-profit event, Mr Phillips’ business is being paid an undisclosed fee from the money raised by ticket sales to charities and members of the public.
Princess Anne’s son – who controversially sold the rights to his wedding to Hello! magazine for a rumoured £500,000 – insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palace to organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother. It was only after he had got the ‘sign off’ that he discussed it with her, he claimed.
‘SEL is being paid a set fee basically to take this from sign-off from the Palace through to delivery of the event,’ he confirmed in an interview to publicise the celebration.
‘I was very conscious to make sure we did this properly, so we went through the normal channels of approaching the Palace. We had to show that this wasn’t a case of trying to cut corners because the Queen happens to be my grandmother.’ Describing his conversation with the Queen he recalled: ‘I said, “Oh, by the way you may or may not have heard that we are having conversations with your office about this”….She said “I’ve heard you’re up to something”.’
Mr Phillips said the idea for the street party had come up during ‘conversations with my business partners’ more than two years ago and just ‘snowballed’.
He insisted: ‘We went through the normal channels.
‘We presented an idea to them [Buckingham Palace] – they really liked that idea. That took a few months to get through the various sign-off processes that you have to go through for these events.
‘Then we got the sign-off in December 2014. It was after we had approached the office that I spoke to her about it.
‘The idea started as a conversation…and how we should really do something to celebrate the Queen’s patronages. For me what the family does as a whole for a lot of these organisations is not entirely appreciated by the wider public.’
Mr Phillips insisted his grandmother was firmly behind the project. He said: ‘She is really excited by this – she thinks it is a great idea. She loves the fact that all of these organisations are going to be brought together for the first time.’
Keen rugby player Mr Phillips, 38, who studied at Exeter University, has long worked in the corporate and global sponsorship sector for firms including Jaguar and Williams F1.
He was previously head of global sponsorship at RBS but in May 2012 was given the chance to set up a UK arm of SEL which, unsurprisingly, boasts his sister Zara Phillips as one of its main clients.
Always one of the quieter of the younger royals, Mr Phillips prompted controversy, however, in 2008 when sold the photographic rights to his wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly for a six-figure sum.
Surprise: Mr Phillips (second from left, with Autumn Kelly, Zara Phillips and the Queen) insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palace to organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother
Despite their refusal to pose for Hello! photographers, several pictures of senior members of the Royal Family – including the Queen – subsequently appeared over 100 pages of the magazine.
Princes William and Harry also privately expressed their concern that their then girlfriends, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, featured heavily in the publication. Courtiers suggested the Queen was an unwitting ‘victim’ of the controversial deal.
The monarch, however, is extremely fond of her grandchildren and all was eventually forgiven. Mr Phillips and his wife are now regulars at royal events and have two children, Savannah, five, and Isla, three. Although his mother chose not to give him a royal title, Mr Phillips is 13th in line to the throne.
Read more: The Queen's 90th birthday charity lunch in The Mall to host 10,000 | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
The Patron’s Lunch is the highlight of a weekend of events paying tribute to the monarch’s life and achievements.
She is said to be ‘really excited’ about the party designed to celebrate her role as patron of more than 600 national and Commonwealth organisations.
The Queen will attend as guest of honour along with Prince Philip and grandsons William and Harry, who are joint presidents of the event, as well as other royals.
Britain's biggest ever street party! 10,000 to join Queen for her 90th birthday charity lunch in The Mall
10,000 people will be treated to Pimm's and PG Tips at the Patron's Lunch, celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday
She is said to be 'really excited' about the party, to honour her vital role as patron of more than 600 organisations
As well as the Queen, Prince Philip and her grandsons William and Harry will be present, as well as other royals
But critics have expressed concern that charity workers are being charged £150 per person to join the celebration
By Rebecca English Royal Correspondent and Josh White For The Daily Mail
15 January 2016
Daily Mail
Britain will celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday this summer with Pimm’s and PG Tips at the biggest street party the country has ever seen.
The Patron’s Lunch is the highlight of a weekend of events paying tribute to the monarch’s life and achievements.
She is said to be ‘really excited’ about the party designed to celebrate her role as patron of more than 600 national and Commonwealth organisations.
The Queen will attend as guest of honour along with Prince Philip and grandsons William and Harry, who are joint presidents of the event, as well as other royals.
But there was concern last night after it emerged that charities which have the monarch as their patron are being charged £150 per person to join the official celebration on The Mall. Although the vast majority of the 10,000 places are being ‘made available’ to organisations with close links to the Queen, they will be charged for the privilege.
Guest of honour: The Patron's Lunch will be the highlight of a weekend of scheduled events paying tribute to the Queen's achievements The Patrons Lunch
Royal party: Some 10,000 people are estimated to be in attendance, including Prince Philip and the Queen's grandsons William and Harry. Pictured, revellers turn out for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee street party
Around 1,000 tickets will also be sold through a public ballot in early March. Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips, who is organising the event, insisted yesterday that the charge was necessary. He said that the street party is ‘not a cheap exercise’ and there is a shortfall between what is being provided by sponsors and the cost of staging the vast event. He also stressed that it is a not-for-profit event and any extra money raised would be distributed back to charity.
But questions were being asked about why organisations supported by the monarch should be asked to meet the cost of attending an official royal celebration of their role out of their own funds. There are also fears the event could turn into a corporate jamboree after it was revealed that those taking part are also being allowed to auction off 40 per cent of their ticket allocation in order to cover the cost of their own staff attending.
That means a significant proportion of attendees may have simply ‘bought’ their way in and not have any affiliation with the charities the event is designed to promote.
One charity worker who asked not to be named described the charging policy as a ‘sting in the tail’, but added: ‘It’s [still] an incredible honour.’ Another said: ‘Many of the charities weren’t deeply excited [about the plans for a lunch]. I feel we are still waiting for the big sell.
I think it’s not clear there will be any opportunities to promote our work and that is a disappointment. I think it’s not very clear what we are doing apart from sitting at tables on The Mall.’
Celebration: The Queen is said to be 'really excited' about the events, which will include a carnival parade and an enormous street party
How The Mall will look on 12 June
Help Musicians UK said it had paid for its ten tickets from a ‘budget set aside for that type of event’. And Lea Bennett, secretary of Island Sailing Club, said 14 members had tickets. ‘The club is not footing the bill. Individual members are paying,’ she said.
David Anderson, the chief officer of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, revealed that members would also pay personally for the 20 tickets they had been allocated. ‘I think at the end of the day it’s what you want to spend your money on isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary. If I wanted to go to a show in London I would be spending that sort of money.’
Ed Aspel, executive director of fundraising and marketing at Cancer Research UK, added: ‘We hope to invite fundraisers and volunteers who have worked tirelessly for Cancer Research UK, as a way of thanking them for their time and dedication. We hope this will be a memorable occasion for them and a fantastic day for all involved.’
A spokesman for the Patron’s Lunch explained: ‘Organising an event of this magnitude in this location requires significant investment.
The Patron’s Lunch is a not-for-profit event, and whilst we have the generous support from our partners, it does not cover the full cost.
‘This is a truly unique event – it is a once-in-a-lifetime, never-done-before celebration. This ticket is a very special one that gives people the chance to be part of this huge street party to honour the lifetime of service of the Queen.’
The Queen turns 90 on April 21 but the weekend of official celebrations will not be held until the summer. On Friday June 10 there will be a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, followed by the annual Queen’s Birthday Parade on Horse Guards on the Saturday. The Patron’s Lunch will take place on Sunday June 12.
The Mall will be transformed, with a thousand tables, each seating ten people, and ten thousand chairs needing to be laid out.
Guests are being treated to a wicker hamper lunch provided by Marks & Spencer and refreshments including Pimm’s, PG Tips tea and Wall’s Ice Cream.
They will be allowed to arrive from 10am, with the Queen and Prince Philip making an entrance in their open-topped State Review Vehicle, a new hybrid-powered Range Rover, at lunch-time.
There will be live ‘carnival style’ entertainment with a colourful procession of entertainers representing the Queen’s patronages travelling the length of The Mall and around the Royal Parks.
Concern: Questions are being asked about why organisations supported by the monarch should be asked to meet the cost of attending an official royal celebration of their role out of their own funds. Pictured, children at Tweedbank to meet the Queen in September 2015 (top) and (bottom) the Queen aboard the Spirit of Chartwell during the Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant in June 2012 in London
Unique event: However, there has been concern that charity workers for the Queen's organisations will be charged £150 each for a ticket. PIctured, the Queen meets German children while on a state visit in Berlin in June 2015
Atmosphere: The Mall will be transformed, with a thousand tables, each seating ten people, and ten thousand chairs needing to be laid out
This will allow members of the public not lucky enough to secure tickets to join in. The BBC will broadcast the event and giant screens will transmit the spectacle, as well as events celebrating the Queen’s birthday around the Commonwealth.
The Queen will view events from a specially built Royal Box at the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Mr Phillips said that he hoped the event would also inspire communities across the country to hold their own street parties. Yesterday the Government issued revised street party guidance to make it easier to hold local events. Buckingham Palace said: ‘Her Majesty is looking forward to attending and seeing representatives of her many patronages which do outstanding work across a range of fields.’
A source added: ‘Planning and ticketing details are a matter for the event organisers.’
So who will run the Queen's huge street party? Her Majesty's own grandson: Peter Philips's firm to organise event after putting in 'bid' to Buckingham Palace
Family connection: The Queen's birthday street party is being organised by an Australian firm, whose London director is her grandson, Peter Phillips (pictured)
The Queen’s birthday street party is being organised by Australian firm Sports and Entertainment Limited, whose London director is none other than her grandson, Peter Phillips.
It also emerged yesterday that although it is a not-for-profit event, Mr Phillips’ business is being paid an undisclosed fee from the money raised by ticket sales to charities and members of the public.
Princess Anne’s son – who controversially sold the rights to his wedding to Hello! magazine for a rumoured £500,000 – insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palace to organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother. It was only after he had got the ‘sign off’ that he discussed it with her, he claimed.
‘SEL is being paid a set fee basically to take this from sign-off from the Palace through to delivery of the event,’ he confirmed in an interview to publicise the celebration.
‘I was very conscious to make sure we did this properly, so we went through the normal channels of approaching the Palace. We had to show that this wasn’t a case of trying to cut corners because the Queen happens to be my grandmother.’ Describing his conversation with the Queen he recalled: ‘I said, “Oh, by the way you may or may not have heard that we are having conversations with your office about this”….She said “I’ve heard you’re up to something”.’
Mr Phillips said the idea for the street party had come up during ‘conversations with my business partners’ more than two years ago and just ‘snowballed’.
He insisted: ‘We went through the normal channels.
‘We presented an idea to them [Buckingham Palace] – they really liked that idea. That took a few months to get through the various sign-off processes that you have to go through for these events.
‘Then we got the sign-off in December 2014. It was after we had approached the office that I spoke to her about it.
‘The idea started as a conversation…and how we should really do something to celebrate the Queen’s patronages. For me what the family does as a whole for a lot of these organisations is not entirely appreciated by the wider public.’
Mr Phillips insisted his grandmother was firmly behind the project. He said: ‘She is really excited by this – she thinks it is a great idea. She loves the fact that all of these organisations are going to be brought together for the first time.’
Keen rugby player Mr Phillips, 38, who studied at Exeter University, has long worked in the corporate and global sponsorship sector for firms including Jaguar and Williams F1.
He was previously head of global sponsorship at RBS but in May 2012 was given the chance to set up a UK arm of SEL which, unsurprisingly, boasts his sister Zara Phillips as one of its main clients.
Always one of the quieter of the younger royals, Mr Phillips prompted controversy, however, in 2008 when sold the photographic rights to his wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly for a six-figure sum.
Surprise: Mr Phillips (second from left, with Autumn Kelly, Zara Phillips and the Queen) insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palace to organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother
Despite their refusal to pose for Hello! photographers, several pictures of senior members of the Royal Family – including the Queen – subsequently appeared over 100 pages of the magazine.
Princes William and Harry also privately expressed their concern that their then girlfriends, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, featured heavily in the publication. Courtiers suggested the Queen was an unwitting ‘victim’ of the controversial deal.
The monarch, however, is extremely fond of her grandchildren and all was eventually forgiven. Mr Phillips and his wife are now regulars at royal events and have two children, Savannah, five, and Isla, three. Although his mother chose not to give him a royal title, Mr Phillips is 13th in line to the throne.
Read more: The Queen's 90th birthday charity lunch in The Mall to host 10,000 | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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