Plans for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Ross-on-Wye are underway

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations to commemorate Her Majesty The Queen’s 70 year reign will be taking place over a four-day bank holiday weekend, from Thursday 2^nd to Sunday 5^th June 2022. The bank holiday will provide an opportunity for communities throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate this historic milestone and Ross-on-Wye is already planning a weekend of events and activities to mark the occasion.

Ross-on-Wye Town Council and St Mary’s Church are jointly organising a series of events including live screenings, picnics, a tea dance, music concerts as well as an appearance from our Town Crier. In addition, Scottish Piper, Simon Addison, will be performing ahead of the official lighting of the Beacon on The Prospect at the start of the weekend on Thursday evening. The town council is also planning on making a number of small grants available for residents to hold their own street parties over the weekend and more information will be made available in the coming weeks.

The focal point for the majority of these events will be St Mary’s Church which, in recent years, has undergone extensive refurbishments allowing the historic 14^th century venue to now provide a spectacular performance space in the heart of the Ross-on-Wye. The Church community is keen that this magnificent space should be used by the people of Ross as a community space as was originally intended when the church was first formed and it intends to act as a focal point for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Over the weekend, a number of events are already being planned and will include:

Monday 30 May to Monday 6 June – St Mary’s Church:

• Art Exhibition represented by local schools, organisations and art groups.

Thursday 2 June:

• 10:00-12:00: Live screening of Trooping the Colour – St Mary’s Church
• 14:00: Town Crier – The Market House
• 14:00-16:00: Afternoon Tea Dance with cake and refreshments – St Mary’s Church
• 19:00: Celebration Spectacular music concert with bar – St Mary’s Church
• 21.35: The Piper – The Prospect
• 21:45: Lighting of the Beacon – The Prospect

Friday 3 June:

• 10:00-13:00: Live screening of the Service of Thanksgiving from St Paul’s Cathedral with refreshments – St Mary’s Church
• 13:00-15:00: Teddy Bear’s Picnic for families and children (BYO) – St Mary’s Church gardens (or inside if adverse weather)

Saturday 4 June:

• 19:00-22:00: Ross Platinum Festival – The Bandstand, Caroline Symonds Gardens HR9 7BX

Sunday 5 June:

• 11:00: Ross-on-Wye Platinum Jubilee Ecumenical ‘Songs of Praise’ Church Service – St Mary’s Church

St Mary’s Church is currently looking for community organisations and voluntary groups who would like to participate in the celebrations and contribute further ideas for the weekend or ‘acts’ for the Celebration Spectacular on the Thursday evening. If you would like to get involved in the weekend’s activities or have a group that would like to participate in any way, please get in touch as follows:

Contact for St Mary’s Church events: Paul Cummings / 07970 315630 / pbgcummings@gmail.com

Contact for all other events: Charlotte Reynolds / 01989 562373 /admin@rosstc-herefordshire.gov.uk